Forward_Moves

Raja Haddad
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  • CULTURE ET SOCIÉTÉ
  • CHAQUE SEMAINE

Forward_Moves is a podcast hosted by Raja Haddad, that shares lived experiences and stories of successful personalities in the Middle East from the creative world of art, design, entertainment, hospitality, business, and other disciplines.

  1. Success is a Trap

    -2 J

    Success is a Trap

    What does it actually look like when someone changes course?  In this recap episode, Raja Haddad revisits 5 conversations from the archive and finds a common thread running through all of them that reframes how we think about pivotal moments. The insight at the heart of this episode: we tend to tell success stories backwards. We start at the destination and trace a line back to the beginning, making the turning point sound inevitable.  But almost none of the people Raja spoke to knew they were in a pivotal moment when they were living it. The leap wasn't a moment of clarity but a moment of honesty.   Guests revisited: Natalya Urmanova - After 15 years thriving in luxury fashion, Natalya didn't leave for photography. She left for nothing. Photography came after, finding herself in the space the leaving created. She talks about what it means to be "leaving to nowhere" and why that might be the most honest description of a real leap.   Zain Massoud - 15 successful years directing art fairs and curating collections across cities. What stopped her wasn't failure but the uncomfortable gap between what she was good at and who she actually was. A landscape design course taken alone during COVID, in an empty flat changed everything.   Bader Najeeb - Founder of Burnt Orange Café, Bader turned down a full culinary scholarship to finish his accounting degree. Then he spent 6 months in that accounting job to prove to himself that it wasn't for him. He calls it closing the what-if permanently.   Salma Mousfi - Known for years as the voice behind the celebrated Monodose album, Salma eventually stepped back, lived her life, and returned to music entirely on her own terms. Salma Nova, written partly from the anguish of being unable to return to Lebanon during the 2006 war, is not a sequel. It's a completely different statement from a different artist.   Sunny Rahbar - Founder of the Third Line Gallery in Dubai, Sunny nearly closed the gallery during COVID after 15 years. A friend's question, what would you do instead? produced an honest answer: nothing. Because the gallery wasn't what she did. It was what she was. She refocused, returned to the original spirit of what she built, and calls where she landed Sunny 3.0.   In every story, the leap was not a bet on something external. It was a decision to trust something internal: an instinct, a sense of self, a recognition that the person they were becoming had drifted too far from who they actually were. Chapters 00:00 Intro  02:30 Nataalya Urmanova: Leaving to Nowhere 04:10 Zain Masud: Excellence is The Trap 06:35 Bader Najeeb: Testing it Out 08:15 Salma Musfi: Away from Success 10:57 Sunny Rahbar: Leap Back to The Start 13:15 Closing words Send us Fan Mail Support the show Download. Share. Subscribe.

    14 min
  2. Who Are You?

    14 AVR.

    Who Are You?

    What if the identity question isn't something to resolve before you start creating, but the creative material itself? In this first episode of the Forward Moves recap series, Raja revisits 38 episodes across 3 seasons and surfaces the thread that runs through nearly every conversation: identity. The guests who've done the most original, durable work aren't the ones who figured themselves out early. They're the ones who learned to live inside the uncertainty and made it productive. Voices from the archive: Bady Dalloul (French-Syrian multimedia artist) says answering the identity question will take a lifetime and means it without frustration. That open-endedness is what keeps driving him back to the studio, and into the fictional nations, invented archives, and miniature worlds that define his practice. Nada Debs (designer) spent years treating her Japanese upbringing and Arab heritage as 2 separate things she had to keep apart. The breakthrough was realising she didn't have to. East and East, she calls it. Amad Mian (founder, Dastaangoi) started from a place of shame about his Pakistani identity and built an entire fragrance and storytelling house in order to change that. He didn't wait to feel proud. He created in order to get there. Nadine Kanso (founder, Bil Arabi) was galvanised by September 11th, watching people around her become afraid of their own Arabic names. Her response was to make the Arabic language the most visible, celebrated thing she could. The brand name itself is the statement. Ricardo Karam (media personality, founder of the Takreem Foundation) has spent 3 decades arguing, through thousands of hours of conversation, that the Arab world is richer and more extraordinary than the prevailing narrative allows. What we need, he says, isn't a new identity but a return to what we already have. Nez Gebreel (co-founder, Dubai Design Week) stopped seeing her layered British, Arab, Italian, Greek and Turkish influences as a conflict to manage and started treating them as a creative advantage. Why can't I be all of them? she asks, and means it as a creative position, not just a personal one. Meshary Al Nassar (Kuwaiti interior designer) offers the most freeing take of all: no one knows what they're doing. We're all figuring it out. We're all humans for the first time. 00:00:00:00 – Cold Open 00:03:29:08 – Intro 00:05:56:18 – Bady Dalloul 00:07:59:23 – Nada Debs 00:09:52:04 – Amad Mian 00:11:29:02 – Nadine Kanso 00:13:30:15 – Ricardo Karam 00:14:42:13 – Nez Gebreel 00:16:02:05 – Meshary AlNassar 00:17:11:24 - Outro Send us Fan Mail Support the show Download. Share. Subscribe.

    18 min

  3. 13 MARS

    Bady Dalloul is Drawing History, Stamp Size

    History has always been a point of view. Bady Dalloul has built his entire practice around proving it.  In this episode of Forward Moves, host Raja Haddad sits down in Paris with Bady Dalloul—French-Syrian multimedia artist whose work spans drawing, collage, objects, and installation—to trace a practice built on imaginary nations, miniature archives, and the deliberate blurring of fact and fiction. From inventing fictional countries with his brother during summers vacationing in Damascus when they were young, to a lesson in Byzantine art history that cracked open everything he thought he knew about who gets to tell the story, Bady's work is less about documenting history and more about exposing how it's made.  He didn't plan any of it. He was just a kid cutting pictures out of his grandparents' books to fill the scrapbook pages of an imaginary nation called Badland. What followed—fine arts training in Paris, exhibitions from Tokyo to Doha, and a major traveling work, Land of Dreams—reads less like a career and more like a lifelong question that keeps getting deeper.  This episode outlines what it means to make work that protects the people whose stories it carries—and why, for Bady, working small is never a limitation. It's an invitation.  You will listen to different narratives:  The genesis: Inventing Badland and Jadland with his brother during Damascus summers—and why that childhood game never really ended History as point of view: The Byzantine art history lesson that revealed official knowledge as constructed—and gave Bady license to intervene Growing under magnificent trees: Finding his own entry point as the son of two established artists Fiction as protection: How blurring fact and fiction can be an act of care—making difficult testimonies listenable without stripping them of their truth The matchbox as archive: Working at human scale, and why forcing viewers to lean in sets the pace of how a story lands Land of Dreams: Drawing parallels between his own migration to Japan and his parents' journey from Syria to Paris Bady's story is a reminder that the most powerful archives aren't always the official ones. Sometimes they're drawn in miniature, on a matchbox, by someone who had to invent a country just to have somewhere to put everything they felt. Tune in, subscribe to the show, and join us as we chart the creative journeys shaping the Middle East. And if you feel like it, share your thoughts by sending us a message. Until then—keep moving forward.  Episode Timeline:  00:01:25 - Welcome & Introducing Bady Dalloul 00:03:33 - Growing Up Between Paris and Damascus  00:08:06 - Badland and Jadland: The Genesis 00:12:46 - Art History as Point of View 00:15:34 - Finding Your Own Shade 00:17:22 - Archive, Intimacy, and the Daily Drawing Practice  00:19:31 - Blurring Fact and Fiction 00:24:37 - The Matchbox Series 00:30:15 - Living and Working in the Same Space 00:32:19 - Japan, Migration, and Land of Dreams 00:41:41 - Can Art Change History? 00:43:11 - Rapid Fire Questions  Connect with Bady Dalloul  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/badydalloul/  Website: https://thethirdline.com/artists/79-bady-dalloul/  Connect with Raja Haddad | Forward_Moves YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/forward_moves/ Twitter/X: https://x.com/forward_moovz Raja’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/octoraj/ Send us Fan Mail Support the show Download. Share. Subscribe.

    48 min

  4. 6 MARS

    Salma Mousfi: The Voice That Keeps Moving

    Some artists define an era. Salma Mousfi lived through several—and made music in every one of them, redefining each of them.. In this episode of Forward Moves, host Raja Haddad sits down in Paris with Salma Mousfi—the Lebanese singer whose voice became inseparable from Ziad Rahbani’s legacy through the cult classic album Monodose— to trace a life that refuses to hold still. From rehearsing in bomb shelters as a twelve-year-old in wartime Beirut, to belting Madonna covers that caught the ear of Lebanon’s greatest musical genius, to recording a Bossa Nova album inspired by her war-canceled move back to Beirut in 2006, Salma’s story is one of constant reinvention driven not by ambition, but by sheer necessity to live. Salma didn’t plan to become a central figure of Middle Eastern avant- garde music. She was just a teenager who had to sing to exist. What followed—a decade-long collaboration with Ziad Rahbani, years of stepping away from the spotlight to raise children and run a shop in Grasse, a pivot to jewelry design in Paris, and now a return to the stage with a tribute to the mentor she lost—reads less like a career and more like a life fully inhabited. This conversation explores what it means to carry a legacy without being crushed by it. It’s about the politics of being a Lebanese woman expat who reinvents herself not by choice but by circumstance. About recording an album over one summer with two babies and no expectation it would matter—26 years before it still does. And about why Salma believes every musician who ever played with Ziad owes it to him to perform his music live. This episode explores: • The Beirut that made her: Growing up during the civil war, rehearsing in shelters, and why music wasn’t an escape—it was proof of existence • The discovery: How an 18-year-old singing Madonna covers at a BUC concert caught Ziad Rahbani’s attention and changed everything • Monodose, unplanned: How Lebanon’s most beloved jazz album was made with no expectations, two babies in tow, and a summer’s worth of recording sessions • The Salma sound: Emotional but never melodramatic—how she learned to live the meaning of a song without letting it tip into performance • Salma as collaborator, not muse: The moments she pushed back, and why Ziad listened • Salma Nova: Writing a Bossa Nova album while displaced by the 2006 war—an expat’s love letter to a home she couldn’t return to • Keeping Ziad alive: Why she believes his legacy must be performed, not just streamed—and the 22-year-old musician from France who might carry it forward • Two homes: What it means to land in Paris and feel home, then land in Beirut and feel home too Salma’s story is a reminder that the most enduring voices aren’t the ones that shout the loudest—they’re the ones that keep showing up, in shelters, in studios, in borrowed apartments, on stage. She is proof that a creative life doesn’t need a plan. It just needs the refusal to stop. Tune in, subscribe, and join us as we chart the creative journeys shaping the Middle East. Until then—keep moving forward. Episode Timeline: 00:01:14 - Welcome & Introducing Salma Mousfi 00:03:05 - The Night Ziad Heard Her Sing 00:06:10 - Singing to Survive: Music in Wartime Beirut 00:08:37 - Musical Influences: Stevie Nicks to Astrud Gilberto 00:09:13 - How Ziad Structured Her Voice 00:12:44 - Recording Monodose: A Collaboration, Not a Commission 00:19:44 - The Birth of Salma Nova 00:24:11 - Women Expats and Constant Reinvention 00:26:43 Send us Fan Mail Support the show Download. Share. Subscribe.

    51 min
  5. Beyond KPIs: Craft, Culture, and Integrity

    27 FÉVR.

    Beyond KPIs: Craft, Culture, and Integrity

    What can a Dubai-based food obsessive and a regional fragrance founder teach corporate leaders? In this special recap of two Forward Moves conversations, host Raja Haddad weaves together key moments from food writer and curator Hani AlMalki (Bedouin Foodie) and Dastaangoi co‑founder Amad Mian. Through six themes—identity, memory, integrity, craft, technology, and curiosity—the episode explores how food and scent become tools to reclaim cultural narratives, build trust, and design unforgettable experiences. You’ll hear how Hani “documents excellence” instead of chasing hype, why Amad built a brand “from the region, for the region,” and where both of them draw the line between scale and soul. In the final minutes, Raja turns these creative insights into a practical mirror for the corporate world: • How clear identity helps you say no to the wrong opportunities • Why emotional memory beats campaigns in building true brand equity • What it looks like to protect integrity under commercial pressure • How “Shokunin” craft cultures can exist inside large organizations • Ways to scale technology and reach without losing human connection Whether you’re a corporate leader, brand builder, or simply someone who cares about the stories behind what we consume, this episode offers a fresh, regional lens on what it means to move forward—without losing ourselves. Connect with Raja Haddad | Forward_Moves YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/forward_moves/  Twitter/X: https://x.com/forward_moovz  Raja’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/octoraj/  Send us Fan Mail Support the show Download. Share. Subscribe.

    27 min

  6. 14 FÉVR.

    Hani Al Malki: Documenting Food Excellence and Preserving Meaning

    Some people post food photos. Hani AlMalki asks why it matters. In this episode of Forward_Moves, host Raja Haddad sits down with Hani AlMalki — the Dubai-based food writer, curator, and culinary entrepreneur known as Bedouin Foodie. Born in Jeddah to a Syrian father and Palestinian mother, exposed early to Michelin-starred dining through family ties with JeanPaul Guerlain, Hani developed a palate shaped by culture, migration, and craftsmanship. This episode covers the full arc — from the communal table we're losing to the delivery culture killing the dining experience, from Michelin's evolving business model to the rise of owner-operated restaurants where the real gold is found. And it ends with how Hani channeled all of it into a signature French onion soup burger. This is not a conversation about food trends. It’s about preserving meaning. This episode explores: ● Documenting excellence over chasing clicks: The shokunin philosophy, hole-in-the-wall gems, and why substance beats sensation ● Food as cultural identity: Tracing dishes across borders — from Hejazi pilgrims to Indonesian murtabak to Japanese dumplings ● The death of the spectator: Why delivery culture is eroding the dining experience, and what we lose when food becomes just consumption ● Michelin, marketing, and who pays for stars: The business model behind culinary recognition in the UAE and Saudi Arabia ● Creating a signature dish: The story behind the French onion soup burger — and why it can never be ordered online Hani's story is proof that integrity builds something algorithms can't manufacture. That the most trusted voices aren't the loudest ones. And that the best meal you'll ever have might be in a six-stool pizzeria in Tokyo, made by one person who has spent a lifetime perfecting the dough. Tune in, subscribe, and join us as we chart the creative journeys shaping the Middle East. Until then—keep moving forward. Episode Timeline: 00:01:05 - Introduction and guest bio 00:05:17 - Developing a palate 00:08:12 - Turning OCD and ADD into a creative superpower 00:11:34 - Research methodology and the holistic dining experience 00:13:10 - The shokunin principle 00:15:31 - How food travels across cultures and borders 00:18:32 - Integrity, bad reviews, and UAE legal parameters 00:23:13 - Dubai as a culinary melting pot 00:26:17 - The Michelin star obsession 00:29:45 - Losing the communal table — and who's bringing it back 00:33:17 - The death of the spectator 00:38:20 - Dubai vs. Saudi: different diners, different scenes 00:40:18 - Michelin's business model and what it means for the region 00:50:56 - Creating the French onion soup burger 00:54:13 - Rapid fire round Connect with Hani AlMalki | Bedouin Foodie | Food UnScripted Podcast Substack: https://bedouinfoodie.substack.com/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bedouinfoodie  Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4zoDC0zSHKpzWyDW9XZO5d  Linktree: https://linktr.ee/HaniAlMalki  Connect with Raja Haddad | Forward_Moves YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcast Ins Send us Fan Mail Support the show Download. Share. Subscribe.

    59 min

  7. 6 FÉVR.

    Amad Mian: Scented Stories of Dastaangoi

    Some brands sell candles. Dastaangoi ignites memories. In this episode of Forward Moves, host Raja Haddad sits down with Amad Mian—co-founder of Dastaangoi, the Dubai-based luxury home fragrance brand turning cultural heritage into scent. What started as free Zoom storytelling events during lockdown has become something far more personal: a fragrance house where jasmine is your grandmother's morning ritual, orange blossoms are Damascus afternoons, and daffodils transport you to Kashmir valleys you've never seen. Amad didn't start this to sell products. He started it to answer a painful question: how do I make sure my daughter is proud of being Pakistani when I spent years ashamed of it myself? The answer came through scent—the most visceral carrier of memory we have. No added notes to jasmine. No dilution for Western markets. Just stories specific enough to transport you, open enough for you to write yourself into them. This is about a founder who learned perfumery by researching spice markets as ancient medicine, not just cooking ingredients. Who makes candles with custom wax blends because Gulf homes are bigger and hotter. Who does pop-ups himself because he wants to see people close their eyes and smile—or cry—when they smell home. It's about building something from the region, for the region, without asking permission from global luxury's playbook. This episode explores: ● Reclaiming identity through scent: Why fragrance became the vehicle for teaching his daughter what he had to learn as an adult  ● Research over formula: Starting with landscape, poetry, and lived experience—then building the fragrance  ● Authentic vs. appropriated: What it means to create for your community instead of performing it for outsiders  ● The open story: Making scents specific enough to transport, loose enough for anyone to project their own memory  ● Artist residencies as core: Why bringing creatives together isn't marketing—it's who they are  ● Scaling with soul: How to grow globally without losing the pop-up conversations that make people cry ● Amad's story is proof that the most powerful brands aren't polished—they're honest. Dastaangoi shows us that cultural storytelling doesn't need validation from international markets. It just needs courage to say: this is us.  Tune in, subscribe, and join us as we chart the creative journeys shaping the Middle East. Until then—keep moving forward. Send us Fan Mail Support the show Download. Share. Subscribe.

    45 min

  8. 22 JANV.

    Radio AlHara: It works because no one controls it

    Some radio stations broadcast content. Radio Alhara creates neighborhoods. In this episode of Forward Moves, host Raja Haddad sits down with Yousef Anastas and Saeed Abu Jaber—two of the five founders behind Radio Alhara, the Palestinian online radio station that turned quarantine isolation into global connection. What started in March 2020 as friends dropping audio files into a shared drive has become something far more radical: a sonic public square where sound becomes resistance, gathering, and everyday life all at once. Yousef and Saeed didn't set out to build a platform. They built a neighborhood— one without borders, curators, or institutional funding. No agenda. No plan. Just an open calendar and a simple invitation: play what you love, not what the club demands. Sunday morning sets over Saturday night bangers. Cooking shows alongside protest takeovers. 11,000 shows that exist but aren't archived—because sometimes the most radical act is to let something be ephemeral. This episode explores: ● Openness as curation: Why they ask DJs for "Sunday morning, not Saturday night"—unlocking personal music collections nobody hears at clubs ● The anti-institutional move: Rejecting funding to stay DIY, messy, and honest—avoiding agendas and the flattening of culture ● Radio as political gesture: How lending someone a sound card in another city becomes resistance—local networks going global ● The archive question: Why 11,000 shows remain inaccessible by design —"you either listen or you miss it" ● Radio from anywhere: How a station rooted in Bethlehem became a blueprint for any place that struggles for something Yousef and Saeed's story is a reminder that the most powerful projects aren't designed—they're lived. Radio Alhara is proof that cultural resistance doesn't need permission, funding, or a five-year plan. It just needs people willing to press play. Tune in, subscribe, and join us as we chart the creative journeys shaping the Middle East. Until then—keep moving forward. Send us Fan Mail Support the show Download. Share. Subscribe.

    50 min
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Forward_Moves is a podcast hosted by Raja Haddad, that shares lived experiences and stories of successful personalities in the Middle East from the creative world of art, design, entertainment, hospitality, business, and other disciplines.

Informations

  • Création
    Raja Haddad
  • Années d’activité
    2024 - 2026
  • Épisodes
    40
  • Classification
    Tous publics
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Forward_Moves
  • Site web de l’émission
    Forward_Moves

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