first talk show: Halloween night

It was looking like a fairly dull weekend of catchup work, but then I received my first ever (and perhaps last ever) invitation to appear on a one-hour talk show. It’s for Saudi TV. The host will be in Riyadh, and I suppose, sitting here in their Cairo studio (located in a surprisingly residential neighborhood), I will have the pyramids projected behind me as a backdrop, or maybe a night-effect Cairo skyline. Just guessing.

I’m invited not qua philosopher, but qua Associate Vice Provost for Research of the American University in Cairo. The topic is: international intellectual prizes. Are the award decisions biased? Do they have positive or negative effects on the recipients? And related issues. When I accepted the invitation, I thought he meant speaking for 2 or 3 minutes. But no, it’s going to be three people splitting an hour’s worth of air time.

Time to get a haircut.