We begin our new season with a guest and marching program from the house of the Egyptian journalist Mahmoud Saad in Cairo, not only as a brilliant name in the history of television and journalism, but also as an “experienced witness” to the transformations of the profession, the change in public taste, and the decline of the idea of ​​the “common Arab” that used to bring people together around one voice or one event, as he explains during the episode.

A dialogue that reveals the philosophy of a man who believes that real media is neither a show of success nor a search for a “recipe,” but rather a continuous attempt to understand people, get closer to them, and adapt to a rapidly changing world.

Umm Kulthum…the memory of the “Arab meeting” when it was possible

The picture of Umm Kulthum behind Mahmoud Saad was a broad introduction to talking about a time when culture, through art, was able to create a common space for Arabs. Mahmoud Saad does not talk about Umm Kulthum as a singer only, but as a social and cultural phenomenon that brought people together on a fixed date, raised the level of taste, and made “listening” a general ritual that transcends geography.

He recalls the image of Arab cities stopping on the “first Thursday” of the winter months: “The streets are empty in Cairo, Baghdad, or Rabat… everyone hears Umm Kulthum.” Mahmoud Saad believes that art was a bridge between societies, before the ability of culture to bring people together declined, and division began to eat away “the common.”

The decline of “unifying power”… and division as a daily reality

From Umm Kulthum, the conversation moves to the bigger question: What has changed in Arab culture? Mahmoud Saad goes directly to the idea of ​​fragmentation, and acknowledges that the role of art in “bringing people together” has greatly weakened, and that differences have become too broad to be covered by a single cultural space. In his description, he does not talk about a natural difference between societies, but rather about a state of division that cuts off knowledge among the Arab peoples themselves: “The differences between us today make us divided… The Egyptian citizen does not know much about the Moroccan citizen… nor the Sudanese… nor the Iraqi.”

Hence, he reiterates his basic wish: to create cultural and social exchange between young people, because mutual isolation produces ignorance of the other within the same region, and weakens any ability to build a common future.

He also rejects the idea of ​​unity in the old form, and leans towards an integrative model similar to the experience of the European Union. He says: “The Arab countries must unite and complement each other like the European Union, and enable young people to move and work in various Arab countries.”

Rose Al-Youssef…the first school

When Mahmoud Saad is asked about the secret of the special relationship with the public, he refuses to reduce it to a “recipe.” He explains his career path as a diverse one; He started out as a general journalist in Rose Al-Youssef magazine, writing about everything, then he specialized in cinema for a long time, but he kept moving between multiple fields. The most important thing is what he describes as the spirit of the place at that time, and he describes that stage by saying: “The most important thing at that stage was great freedom within the institution and allowing new ideas.” It paints a picture of a newsroom at that time that did not sanctify the differences between the “professor” and the “junior,” but rather provided a learning experience for everyone.

Mahmoud Saad adds an important idea: “The public does not always ask for what they really want, and no one knows precisely what people want all the time.” Therefore, he rejects the slogan “We work at the request of the public,” and presents another logic: “I do not do my work at the request of the public… I do it based on the feeling that this must be presented to the public… because no one really knows what the public wants.”

“The Door to Creation”… from the first point of awareness to the voice of the voiceless

The “Bab Al-Khalq” program is considered one of the keys to understanding Mahmoud Saad’s media experience. He does not treat it as a fame programme, but rather as an attempt to “open the door” to models and stories from the region. He explains that he moved between different Arab countries, not to accumulate scenes or snapshots, but rather to say that what unites people is more than what divides them. He explains: “The door to creation… expands all ideas… I moved from Egypt to Iraq and went to Jordan, Tunisia and Morocco… The stories in all these countries concern all of us.”

He added that he tried to return a moral “debt” to the public who gave him confidence: “The public gave me something priceless… the love of the people in the street… so I always try to thank them.”

From paper to screen…then to social media

Mahmoud Saad explains his move to television in the early 2000s with simple logic: Satellite channels needed ready journalists with relationships and knowledge of the field, and they had no time to create broadcasters from scratch.

But it also reveals a human side: fear. He repeats that he was “terrified” of appearing in front of the camera, and that he entered the experience thinking that it was a one-stop shop, but the experience extended and turned into a path. Then his move to social media follows a similar logic: the world moves, people change, and whoever stands back retreats. He adds a striking analogy: “For me, social media is a type of journalistic development… I wrote on paper… I wrote on television… Today we write on social media.”

Thus, Mahmoud Saad removes the imagined separation between “old journalism” and “new platforms,” and sees the matter as a shift in the means, not in the essence of the idea: communicating with people.

Failure and success… rejecting the myth of the “upward curve”

At the conclusion of the dialogue, Mahmoud Saad completely rejects the rosy narrative that sees his career as a series of accumulated successes. He says: “I don’t think… I am moving from success to success… What is more is that I try to achieve success every day.” Then he adds: “Feeling satisfied with success is the beginning of the decline… If one feels successful and achieved… then he will begin to descend.” He refuses to consider awards or numbers as a final definition of success: “When I am nominated for an award, I say: Why is this award? What have I done?”

In the end, it all has something to do with something bigger: the willingness of Arab youth to face a world that is changing at an incredible speed. He poses the question with clear concern: “Are our youth ready to face the terrible development that the world experiences every day?”

He does not provide a definitive answer, but he places the issue at the heart of what he sees as the mission of the media: alerting society to the future rather than simply recording the past.