What is MAABAR
a podcast dedicated to exploring Lebanon’s complicated history, with a focus on the Civil War
Maabar is a documentary podcast featuring a cross-section of voices and lived experiences from Lebanon’s complicated history with a focus on the Civil War (1975-1990). Meaning both barrier and crossing in Arabic, maabar captures the duality of war memory in contemporary Lebanon: a stymied past that perpetually fractures the present, and a present that must navigate that past to reach a shared future. Through hundreds of narratives that populate the episodes, the podcast blurs the boundaries between the present and the past, memory and identity, meaning and understanding. In so doing, Maabar dismantles stereotypes and challenges preconceived notions, allowing individual stories to unfold one at a time, accumulating into a genuine, multi-perspective recollection of the war.
Since its launch in 2022, Maabar has released three seasons. Season 1 explores everyday life during the war – the innocence of childhood, first loves, first jobs – and the struggles of routine survival alongside sudden acts of brutality, loss, and the ensuing trauma left in the wake of the thousands forcibly disappeared and the tens of thousands killed. Season 2 shifts to journalists covering the war, from Lebanese photo/journalists to foreign correspondents, where the line between survival and professional duty all but disappeared. Season 3 complements these frontline perspectives with the vantage point of first responders – doctors, firefighters, Red Cross volunteers – unsung heroes who saved lives regardless of creed or faction. Seen as guardian angels or accused of playing God, they carry the unbearable weight of unhealed wounds, still haunted by the specter of war. Episode by episode, Maabar peels back the paper thin layers of memory, exposing raw emotions, unfulfilled dreams, and the pain of a past buried for decades.
Maabar was born from a need to understand how the Lebanese Civil War shaped life—not just during the fighting, but in everything that followed. how the Lebanese Civil War shaped life—not just during the fighting, but in everything that followed. The project emerged from a sense of dissonance: a war that is constantly present in its consequences, but rarely discussed in ways that feel complete, honest, or unafraid.
Everyone knows the war happened, that it changed lives forever, that things were “different” before it. Yet talk of the war – when it surfaces at all – is largely confined to the family, and even there, remains shrouded in silence. Its weight lingers in unspoken family taboos, passive-aggressive undercurrents, and an ever-present sense of unease. Publicly, the war lurks in the shadows, sometimes invoked as a warning, sometimes as an excuse. It shapes the present, but rarely is confronted.
What began as intergenerational conversations about the war around the Sunday lunch table led us far beyond the family – and beyond our comfort zones – into a history deliberately avoided. Since 1991, the Amnesty Law has shielded wartime leaders from accountability, enforcing a form of state-sponsored amnesia. The war is absent from school curricula, leaving generations without the tools to understand the past – only to inherit trauma without context, shaped by insular community narratives that reinforce rigid identities. Though dangerous, silence is easier – prevailing attitudes discourage reopening old wounds, forget rather than grapple with war’s complexities and contradictions.
Maabar takes these challenges head-on. It reverses erasure by amplifying voices across divides, presenting a credible alternative to the single, weaponized narratives that have fueled ongoing cycles of violence. Moreover, Maabar’s quest is urgent: those who lived the war are now in their 70s and 80s, their voices will soon be gone. By preserving their stories, Maabar builds a shared history – one that fosters understanding instead of blame. Instead of silence, it creates space for listening, learning, for tears and tension, and for meaningful reflection.
Why is Maabar
Following oral history best practices, Maabar collects, preserves, and interprets the voices and memories of people from diverse backgrounds – frontline witnesses, professionals, and civilians alike. In three years, it has conducted 130+ interviews, identifying narrators through personal and community networks, expanding the pool through the snowball method and ensuring a diverse sample based on geography, community, and gender. Interviews are semi-structured and questions open-ended, granting narrators the freedom to lead the conversation, reinforcing the shared authority with informed consent paramount. Given the war’s continued sensitivity, all interviews are recorded in audio format to guarantee anonymity and protection.
Each episode is created from interview extracts - sometimes over 20 per episode - around a unifying theme to represent a collective narrative. While episodes are not bound by chronology, they underscore the shared tragedy of war rather than its glorification. At the same time, Maabar makes no claim to “objectivity,” rather it accepts memory’s inherent subjectivity as a powerful tool to understand how the past is reconstructed and how it continues to shape present-day emotions and identities. This labor intensive editorial process involves pre-planned thematic seasons, the careful selection of complementary and contradictory extracts, and professional sound design that captures every nuance – whether grainy voices, laughter, gulping back tears, or moments of deafening silence. Musical scores further enhance the episodes’ emotional and narrative depth, immersing listeners in a transformative journey that brings the past closer to the present. More than a podcast, Maabar is a multi-layered experience, preserving memory and reshaping how Lebanon’s war is remembered.
How is Maabar
Who is Maabar
Anthony Tawil
Co-Creator and Producer
Cedric Kayem
Co-Creator and Producer
Jenny Munro
Executive Producer
Maria Bashshur Abunnasr
Oral History Advisor
Gallery
Support Maabar
Producing Maabar takes time and deep commitment. We’re dedicated to keeping it freely accessible– but to do that, we rely on individual support. By becoming a patron, you help sustain this work and allow it to grow – across voices, generations, and stories still wanting to be told. Your support means you recognize the urgency of documenting and engaging with our past to better understand the present. Maabar isn’t just about what happened – it’s about how we live with it now.
