Morocco Before You Go

Open the series by resetting expectations. Sarah and Rami talk through what first-time visitors usually get wrong — that Morocco is part of the Middle East, that it's mostly desert, that French gets you everywhere — and replace those assumptions with what the country actually feels like on arrival: a North African nation with deep Amazigh roots, four living languages on every street, and a sensory volume that catches most people off guard. Rami shares what newcomers always tell him surprised them most in their first 24 hours, and how to land more gracefully. The job of the episode is to give listeners the mental shift they need before any specific advice in later episodes can land.

A history episode that earns its place by connecting the past to what you'll actually see. Rami walks Sarah from the Amazigh peoples and Roman Volubilis through the arrival of Islam with Idris I, the Almoravid and Almohad empires, the Marinid and Saadian dynasties that built the madrasas and palaces still standing today, the long Alaouite line that still rules, and the French and Spanish Protectorate years that ended in 1956. The point isn't to memorize dynasties — it's to understand why Fez feels different from Marrakesh, why Meknes has those enormous gates, and why the king matters. The companion app's History of Morocco articles are there if you want to go deeper.