Kim Fox: Podcasting Pioneer Embraces ‘Rich Sounds’ of Cairo
By: Salma Abouelwafa
@Salmaabouelwafa
Stuck in the middle of the Cairo Ring Road with nothing but the heat and the sound of impatient car honks, you turn to your SoundCloud as a last resort to sanity, listening to the words of Ehky Ya Masr’s (Tell Your Story, Egypt) latest podcasts to fill in the void.
The award winning everything-Egyptian podcast that discusses themes of culture, gender, and social issues is produced by a group of AUC graduates and was launched in 2017 by Kim Fox, professor of practice at the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication (JRMC), who is also its executive producer.
“That’s one way to popularize podcast [in Egypt]. We do a narrative nonfiction bilingual podcast. It’s something that’s really rare in Egypt and we wanna see it grow,” Fox told The Caravan.
Some of the topics discussed on Ehky Ya Masr range from the recent water crisis that may impact local food production, to “to-die-for” Egyptian food and the way Egyptians drink tea. The podcasts sometimes talk about things that define Egypt like cuisine, music and cultural festivals. But there are also more intensive discussions like about what it means to be a woman in Egypt, the hijab, and wasta, or nepotism.
One could suppose that it was a coincidence that Ehky Ya Masr launched just as radio – and more specifically, podcasts – were enjoying renewed global popularity.
Or it could be that Fox had a prescient sense of what was just over the media horizon.
Podcasts have been a growing form of media in the past couple of years. Unlike radio, podcasts are available to download on computers or personal devices and usually revolve around a certain theme in the format of a group of related series and episodes. But what makes them so popular is how easy they are to create.
“Audio is cheaper to make. All I have to do is show up, talk for the most part, tell stories, be compelling and it’s so much cheaper and it doesn’t take as much time to produce as it does to create video,” said Fox.
Just like an old vintage leather jacket, podcasts and audio media are the new black.
“It’s sexy again. It’s having a resurgence and remember, audio came before video, so it’s like everything old is new again,” Fox said excitedly.
Fox has always been interested in radio and audio. She majored in video production in college and worked in the college radio station at Ohio University in Athens. From there, her interest and passion for creating podcasts grew.
Fox came to Cairo when she started teaching at AUC in 2009. She enjoys traveling and exploring little gems in Egypt such as the White Desert in the Farafra Oasis and small towns like Beni Suef. However, for everyday activities, Fox likes to wake up early in the morning and ride her bike in her Zamalek neighborhood or go rowing on the Nile.
Even though Fox enjoys the serenity that is only present in the mornings, she finds Cairo inspiring when it comes to her work, as it is vibrant and full of life, especially when it comes to sounds, providing much fodder for content.
“For an audio person, Cairo is sound rich. There are so many unique sounds in Cairo, and that’s really a lot of inspiration for the Ehky Ya Masr podcast because we produce narrative nonfiction pieces that are bilingual as well. We really want to immerse the listener in the spaces and scenes that we create in pieces,” said Fox.
From street vendors selling vegetables to the loud horns of the rush hour traffic, Cairo truly never turns off, leaving Fox wondering, “does Cairo ever go to sleep!”
As audio content dissemination online began to grow, Fox founded PodFest Cairo, Egypt’s first podcasting conference, in 2020. Nearly 100 podcasters participated in the inaugural conference, which was held in AUC’s Tahrir Cultural Center. The conference included a keynote presentation along with sessions on podcasting as well as a podcast pitch competition.
One of the students who worked on the podcast, Reem El Maghraby, a Multimedia Journalism major and creative writing minor graduate, shared her experience of working closely and learning from Fox.
“It was a very great experience working with her [Fox] on the food series. I learned a lot about how to produce a podcast and the work behind it all. Professor Kim Fox is a great mentor and overall an amazing person, so being able to work with her on this was absolutely amazing; especially since this was my first time working as an assistant producer for a podcast,” El Maghraby told The Caravan.
Fox’s persona and enthusiasm towards her work is not only felt amongst students but the department as a whole. Fox has worked with multiple faculty members throughout her years at AUC.
One of them is Nadine El Sayed, Associate Professor of Practice in the JRMC department.
“Professor Fox is a powerhouse in her field. She pioneered podcasting in the department and in academia in Egypt, and she launched the first podcast conference in the country,” she said.
El Sayed fondly remembers Fox helping her when she first joined AUC as a full-time faculty member, offering support and helping her navigate her way through the new position without even having to ask.
“That really shows who she is as a person; she’ll always be there and offer a helping hand without hesitation,” said El Sayed.
In the meantime, Fox sees podcasts starting to become more corporate.
Popular audio applications such as Spotify, Anghami, Apple Music, and many others are getting into this field and sharing very high quality audio productions. Despite this, Fox still believes that podcasts are applicable for everyone to learn and produce.
“With all of these big companies coming in, there’s an illusion that they are creating good quality audio, so it’s very competitive. [However,] it’s something that you can learn. You can get in the right group of people who can teach you. There are many opportunities to learn for free; there are even more opportunities where you can pay. It’s just a very lucrative field to be in,” Fox told The Caravan.
