Thursday, a conversation with Bassem Youssef. He was a heart surgeon in Egypt before he reinvented himself as the Jon Stewart of the Arab world. He joins us to talk about the power of satire to make a point.
When the Arab Spring began in 2010, Bassem Youssef was a heart surgeon. Then he got an idea. Egypt, he thought, needed a Jon Stewart, someone to parody those in power. So Youssef reinvented himself in Stewart’s mold. His own satirical TV news show, Al Bernameg, was more than a massive hit—it was also incredibly risky. Forced into exile by political pressure, Youssef is once again reinventing himself, this time as a comedian in LA. He joins us to talk about his life’s journey and the strength of satire.
Bassem Youssef is a heart surgeon, the host of the Egyptian television show Al Bernameg, and the author of the book Revolution for Dummies: Laughing Through the Arab Spring [Indie bookstores|Amazon|Audible].
