Podcast Categories: Music

Safe House Travel Diary is a narrative podcast following my journey through Lebanon and into the local hip hop scene. Armed with a small recorder and driven by my insatiable curiosity, I document my visits with artists in their safe houses, the places where they live and create. The street sounds bleed in. You don’t just hear about Lebanon, you’re placed inside it.

We talk about music, life, and the realities shaping a new generation of Lebanese rap.

I’m Soha, a Lebanese immigrant, a mama, and a writer. I grew up in Los Angeles during the height of 90s hip hop, watching how music reflected the streets it came from.

Inspired by Kendrick Lamar’s lyric about “venting in the safe house,” I created this show to explore the inner and outer worlds of artists from the misunderstood corners of the world, and what their music reveals about the places they come from.

This season is also something more personal: the story of returning home, and wrestling with what it means to belong to a place you left behind.

Dave Sandell and Caleb Gardner choose the best album for highly relatable, real-life situations — like decompressing after a long day, elevating a backyard party, impressing the car next to you at a stop light, missing someone you love, or running from zombies.