A Door, Not a Wall

Setting boundaries with family without losing them

Karim Mansour2 episodes2 min of audio265 playsEpisodic

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S1 · E2Aug 31, 20260:48178 plays Preview

My Brother Borrowed Money and Nobody Mentions It

A listener in Alexandria lent her younger brother a year of savings. The family says family does not count debts. Karim talks about money, birth order and how to ask without shame.

S1 · E1Jul 30, 20260:5287 plays Members

My Mother Has a Key to My Flat

Karim's mother still lets herself into his apartment to reorganise the kitchen. He uses his own story to explain how to take a key back without starting a war or a week of silence.

About the show

In Cairo, where Karim Mansour grew up, nobody says the word boundaries without laughing, because your mother has a key and your uncle has opinions about your salary. A Door, Not a Wall is a weekly show about keeping close family close while still having a life that is yours: the parent who calls six times a day, the sibling who borrows money and never mentions it again, the relatives who ask when you are having children, the holidays that are mandatory, and the guilt that arrives whenever you say no. Karim mixes his own family's stories with calls from listeners across the Arab world and beyond, and each episode ends with one sentence you can actually say at the next family lunch. Episodes are 30 to 40 minutes and come out every Sunday. It is for anyone from a close, loud, loving family who wants to stop resenting it, and who understands that cutting people off is not the only option.

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