Kurds in the City- Podcast

Brief Summary 

Kurds in the City Podcast that is created by Mehmet Uğur Korkmaz is an oral narrative project that documents the everyday experiences of Kurdish youth living in different cities across Turkey, including encounters with racism, discrimination, the impacts of war policies, and questions of identity.

Since its launch in March 2022, 13 episodes had been recorded by December 2024. During the support period within the scope of the Justice Heals project, 12 additional recordings were conducted in Istanbul, Ankara, Diyarbakır, and Mardin, and 10 of these were published on Spotify.

Friendly pre-recording conversations were held to ensure participant trust and safety content was shared for participant approval, and in some cases, segments were removed or entire episodes were withheld from publication upon request.

The podcast functioned both as a memory initiative that makes visible the lived experiences of Kurdish youth and as a restorative justice practice that opens space for empathy and confrontation among listeners. The series has reached a total of 30,062 listens.

Why Is It Important?

This project is significant because it provides one of the rare spaces where millions of Kurdish youth living in Turkey can articulate the everyday manifestations of systemic racism, discrimination, and war policies in their own words

The Kurds in the City approaches contributes to social memory by making visible experiences that are often isolated, criminalized, or silenced, while bringing marginalized narratives into the public sphere.

The podcast format through the direct testimonial power of voice  allows these stories to be shared while preserving both their vulnerability and their resilience. By avoiding accusatory language, the narratives create a space for empathy, recognition, and renewed relational understanding around social wounds.

In this sense, the project is not merely media content and it also functions as a tool for confrontation, restorative justice, and collective healing.

What Was Done?

• Within the scope of the project, 12 new episodes were recorded, 10 of which were published in line with participants’ preferences. Recordings were conducted face-to-face in Istanbul, Ankara, Diyarbakır, and Mardin.
• Technically, a Zoom F3 recorder and Rode microphones were used. Each session lasted approximately 90 minutes and was edited into final episodes of 40–50 minutes.
• Post-production was carried out by Social Bridge, including editing and sound mixing. The podcast was initially distributed via Anchor and later migrated exclusively to Spotify.
• For each episode, promotional materials were prepared on Instagram, including summary texts, trailers, and selected audio clips.
• To ensure participant safety, ethical measures were implemented, including the use of pseudonyms, the right to remove segments, content approval procedures, and a reconsideration period prior to publication.
• The podcast reached a total of 30,062 listens. Audience feedback was collected via social media and email. Many Kurdish youth reported feeling less alone through the project, while many Turkish listeners expressed that their perspectives had shifted.
• The most-listened episodes featured Mehmet Yaşar Altundağ, Roni Batte, and Beritan Güneş Altın.

Visual / Multimedia Section

• Podcast preview link (Spotify)