What Moroccan podcasting can teach European creators 🇲🇦
Eurowaves #38
Hi podcasters,
A few days to go to this year’s The Podcast Show, the most international one yet. Are you participating? If so, find me speaking at the sessions below. If you’re getting last minute tickets, use code EURW10 for 10% discount.
See you in London!
🇪🇺 Podcasting & Community News 🇪🇺
🏆Tink Media will be co presenting International Women's Podcast Awards this year with Everybody Media, celebrating the creativity, innovation, and impact of women in podcasting across genres and geographies.
🇦🇹Get featured on a top 5% podcast, #impact created and hosted by Regina Larko from Austria, that has been amplifying voices for good since 2017. All it takes is 90 seconds.
🇬🇧AudioUK announced a landmark development for the UK podcast and audio industry, as the UK Government has confirmed that “Podcast and other audio publishing activities” will be formally recognised within the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) 2026 framework.
🇨🇦🇦🇺🇬🇧CBC, ABC and the BBC announced that they are joining forces to bring back the beloved audio short-form documentary series Short Cuts as a podcast and radio series.
🇩🇪In Germany, ARD Media published “Audioversum 2026”, a look at audio consumption in the country. (source: Podnews)
🇬🇧In London, The Publisher Podcast Awards has just announced its shortlist. (source: Podnews)
🇬🇧The winners of The Golden Lobes 2026 were announced. (source: Podnews)
Eurowaves Update ☘️
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“Sound Artisans” of Morocco, with Mehdi El Kindi of Les Bonnes Ondes and AMWAJ Festival 🇲🇦
Mehdi El Kindi is an audio professional and the founder of Les Bonnes Ondes, an independent podcast studio based in Casablanca. After more than a decade as a host and producer on Radio 2M, he shifted his focus to immersive sound documentaries and audio storytelling in 2020. He positions his studio as a team of “sound artisans” dedicated to giving a voice to marginalized narratives. He is deeply engaged in structuring the Moroccan audio ecosystem through training and co-organizes the AMWAJ podcast and radio festival.
You can connect with Mehdi on LinkedIn here.
What’s your podcast origin story?
My background is deeply rooted in traditional radio and music. I spent over a decade as a host and producer at Radio 2M, which taught me the foundational power of audio.
In 2020, driven by a desire to explore immersive, long-form storytelling, I founded Les Bonnes Ondes in Casablanca. This vision was truly cemented in 2021 when I created Rencontre en pays Bamanan, an audio journey to Mali exploring the roots of Gnaoua music. Sorting through the massive amount of raw audio material for that project reaffirmed my commitment to deep sound creation.
I also experienced the profound, therapeutic power of the medium when I recorded a piece for our Micro-confidences series about the 2003 Casablanca bombings. All of this shaped the DNA of Les Bonnes Ondes, not as a tech “start-up,” but as a studio of “sound artisans” dedicated, alongside other things, to giving the microphone to voices we aren’t used to hearing.
Share with us an overview of the Moroccan podcasting industry.
The Moroccan podcasting scene is transitioning from a marginal format to a central space for media expression. Moroccans naturally love to converse and debate, but the podcast format is allowing us to move past surface-level opinions into deep, emotional, and factual human stories.
There is a growing appetite for this alternative storytelling from independent creators, but also from NGOs and brands looking to touch new audiences (even reaching the Moroccan diaspora). The ecosystem is currently structuring itself. A big part of our work is dedicated to training this new wave of creators, to ensure we focus on rigorous journalism and finding our unique, local voices in a saturated global landscape.
How was the AMWAJ Festival born?
AMWAJ was born out of a simple conviction: sound brings people together and gives a voice to stories we no longer hear, or that are unheard.
The festival first materialized in December 2023 through a beautiful complicity and co-production between Les Bonnes Ondes, the Institut Français du Maroc who is the main organiser, and the Longueur d’Ondes festival based in Brest, France.
We wanted to create a dedicated space in Casablanca to celebrate audio craftsmanship and foster encounters between listeners and creators.
How does AMWAJ contribute to an international podcasting landscape?
AMWAJ acts as a Mediterranean and African bridge. By bringing together key audio professionals from Morocco, France, and beyond, we create a space for cross-border pollination. It allows for a multicultural dialogue where we tackle shared societal issues, like migration, identity, climate emergencies, and global conflicts, through multilingual projects. It’s also a platform to support emerging audio authors via networking, cultural exchange, and shared masterclasses.
What are some of the biggest takeaways from the last edition and what are your goals for this year?
Our second edition in December 2025 was incredibly moving. We explored heavy, complex societal themes like mental health, gender, the Middle East crises, and Amazigh identity. The biggest takeaways was seeing how receptive the public, especially the youth, is to immersive, sometimes challenging listening experiences, it was also seeing all the seeds from the first edition grow through more and more local production.
Amwaj is a biennale, but we’ll be represented this year in several festivals and events in France (mainly in Paris and Marseille) thanks to partnerships with independent institutions.
On a studio level, our goal this year is still to open up our infrastructure to the local creative ecosystem by offering our professional studio as a collaborative hub for training, audiovisual production, and thematic debates.
Share 2-3 recommendations of your favorite pieces featured in the festival.
Live Music & Talk with Ilona Dip: We recorded this live during the festival. It’s a “mirror game” where classical pianist Ilona Dip resurrects the forgotten scores of female classical composers who were erased from history, confronting them with their famous male contemporaries.
Entre nos mains (by Badr El Hammami): This was an incredible immersive sound installation at our last edition. Through suspended microphones, it broadcasted intimate stories, chants, and crossed memories, deeply exploring Amazigh identity.
Des bruits de soi: A very rare and sensitive audio creation that tackles mental health and bipolar disorders, breaking taboos through a brilliant narrative form.
Thank you, Mehdi!
🎙️🌍 Podcast Recommendations 🌍🎙️
Your ultimate (and accurate) guide to Italian culture! ITALIAN, FOR SURE goes beyond the cliches and stereotypes to reveal the true Italian way of living. Catrin Skaperdas, an American living in Italy, hosts lively interviews with locals in an effort to give Italians the (befitting) stage to passionately share their wisdom, stories and insights about Italy.
In the latest episode, The Italian Podcast Market, get the inside scoop on the Italian podcast market, like what podcast genres are popular (or not) in Italy, how the non-verbal in Italian culture - like Italian hand gestures - affects podcast listening, and growth and monetization techniques.
A podcast about Spanish heritage that refuses to disappear. With José María Sadia and Andrea Morán. In the first episode of the podcast “Memory in Ruins,” José María Sadia and Andrea Morán seek answers to one of the most enigmatic cases of the 21st century in the field of historical and artistic heritage. In 2012, an art history professor rediscovered a Romanesque-style cloister on a millionaire’s estate in Girona. Is it an authentic building or merely a modern reproduction? Are we looking at a medieval monument, some 800 years old, or a forgery designed to profit from the antiques market?
Season 1: Scarface — The true story of Al Capone. A five part series. No Ordinary Life is a cinematic history podcast series. Each season brings one legendary figure back to life. In Brooklyn, young Capone drops out of school and joins the Five Points street gang. The New York underworld becomes his classroom...
Want to see your podcast recommended?
🇧🇪🇪🇺 Podcasts from Brussels 🇧🇪🇪🇺
Aimée Duprat-Macabies is the Advocacy and Communications Coordinator at the Centre for Democracy & Technology Europe, while also coordinating the work of the NGO on tech-facilitated gender-based violence. A tireless advocate for gender equality, she supervised the communications strategy of the Brussels Binder, a volunteer-run organisation that seeks to increase the diversity of voices in the EU policy debates. She is now supporting the advocacy work of the NGO. Aimée is passionate about accountability and rights in the digital age, from how media operates around EU institutions through to how technology shapes equality.
EU Scream: Those are really thoughtful, in-depth conversations with the people shaping European policy. It’s serious without being stiff, and you often get a sense of the personalities behind the politics, which is rare in EU coverage. My fave last one: the Geopolitics of whiteness.
À quoi tu sers ? Le podcast des métiers de l’Europe: I love this one because it focuses on the people behind the big EU machinery that oftentimes feels super opaque. It demystifies the jobs, the paths, and the day-to-day reality of working in and around European institutions. It's a great listen especially for students and early-career professionals. My fave last one: Sevim, Klaudia, Chiara et Annelies, des influenceuses de l'Europe.
Europod, Europe talks back: I really enjoy this one for its storytelling energy considering it brings real issues and debates to life. Episodes have covered topics from racism, fatphobia, protests to digital rights, LGBTQ+ rights and political deadlock in member states. It’s a great way to understand what’s actually happening on the ground across Europe, not just what’s happening in Brussels. My fave: Let’s talk about digital gender based violence.
Thank you, Aimee!
You can connect with her on LinkedIn here.
🚀Events and Opportunities🚀
A win at the British Podcast Awards is more than a trophy (and a customised cushion from their cushion wall!), it is a moment that can fundamentally change your podcast’s trajectory. Categories span the full podcasting ecosystem, including public voted Listeners’ Choice Award, expertly judged Genre and People categories as well as the highly coveted Editors’ Choice Awards, ensuring breakthrough talent, independent and major networks alike share the spotlight.
When? May 21.
Podcamp Düsseldorf (Germany)
In June 2026, the Düsseldorf Central Library will once again transform into a fantastic meeting place for podcast enthusiasts, content creators and audio professionals from all over Germany, as Podcamp NRW, the most popular event format of the German-speaking podcast community, returns to the state capital.
When? June 19-20.
Women Who Podcast Awards (International)
The Women Who Podcast Awards honors creators who produce shows without the backing of major networks, radio stations, universities/colleges, or large production teams. They are only accepting submissions from podcasts that are independently produced and primarily self-funded.
When? June 30.
That’s it for now!
Andreea