This year, as part of her course at German University Egypt, Tara Emad launched her very first podcast, Bullying Explained, in which she explores what bullying is, why it happens, and how it effects the people involved. Cosmo spoke to the Egyptian actress at Cairo Film Festival to find out more…
“The podcast started off as my university project, it was my bachelors project in thesis, and so far, all nine episodes have been produced, recorded and edited by me,” she tells Cosmo. “I used the quarantine time to do a lot of research and just learn more about podcasts, bullying, anti-bullying prevention programmes. We do not have any anti-bullying prevention programmes in schools in Egypt but that’s what I hope to see in the coming few years.”
Tara opens up about her own experiences. “I was bullied as a kid in school and recently I recognised that there were certain occasions when I was the bully and I was not the nice kid and there were times when I was aggressively treating other students and was also being treated aggressively. When I realised this, it was interesting for me, because it doesn’t always have to be that you’re only the victim, or you’re only the bully. You can sometimes be both and being aware of that is a very big shift in your life.”
Bullying Explained is an educational platform with an interview format, giving those who have been involved in bullying a platform to talk about their experiences. “The podcast is going to get bigger and better,” says Tara on the future of Bullying Explained. “I recently partnered up with this production house called GME and they are going to produce more video content, and we are also going to have an Instagram account with all the resources, and a YouTube channel with videos. It’s going to be a bigger thing.”
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