I was napping peacefully in my room—well, OK, I was dealing with a head cold, but that’s neither here nor there—at the funky bed and breakfast I was staying at in Tunis when Houssem called up and said, “Come on. We’re going to be on the radio. We’re picking you up in five minutes.” Eh? Ok. I pulled myself together, went outside, and was met by a full car of happy people. In no time at all, we were at Radio Express FM. The mission: talk with host Zied M’Hirsi about TED@Tunis, part of TED’s worldwide talent search.
The interview was a polyglot one in Tunisian Arabic, French, and English. Houssem handled the bulk of the questions about the TED@Tunis event in a mix of Arabic and French—appropriate as he was the event’s local producer, but Zied turned to Shawn, Nate, and I in English to get our stories and find out more about TED and TEDx. He was really interested in how the TED and TEDx phenomenon is spreading throughout the world. There were a few questions about TED that we had to pass on answering, but luckily Zied didn’t mind us redirecting to our own personal experiences and points of view.
Our initial fifteen minute time slot was bumped a bit by coverage of Francois Hollande’s election victory in France, but once we were on the air, we ended up talking with Zied for almost an hour as our discussion led to the local TEDxCarthage team and the fact that Hans Rosling was soon arriving in the country to meet with locals. Zied’s face lit up at this last bit of news and you could tell that he would be happy to put aside any other commitment to see Hans during his time in Tunis.
Posted by James Duncan Davidson.