The Geeky Nomads
Why should all tech news be just focused on the USA/Canada/Australia/European regions? That's what The Geeky Nomads have set out to change. Meet Yasser Masood and Gazanfarulla Khan (third-culture millennials born in Dubai and Doha, hailing from Hyderabad), based between the USA and Qatar who want to keep you informed on all the quirky things that revolve around technology, consumer gadgets, social media, and digital-related topics across the Middle East and North Africa region (sometimes even in South Asia as well). If it's global, we want to emphasize the regional relevance and vice-versa.
Episodes
After a few months of a quiet period due to the current geopolitical tensions and challenges in the Middle East region, we're back with our new season right up in the air.
What do we have lined up?
- SpaceX's Starlink saw a rollout to additional markets during the regional conflict
- Impact of the data centers from AWS to Google Cloud
- WHOOP is going big in the Middle East region
- Takeaways from the Google IO 2026, unveiling what's coming...
As 2025 crawls to its conclusion, we look back on the whole season with the Middle East grabbing plenty of headlines spanning three major countries. What better way to reflect than with another episode at 36,000ft up in the air featuring our c-host.
With the whole focus on AI and even branching out to mergers/acquisitions, there hasn't been a quiet period at all. Yet, there are some surprises that have crept in as well including Qat...
Sami Fathi's love for tech and writing began as an editor to the popular Apple news site MacRumors in 2021, making him one of the few Arabs (even quite a young one) to publish for a global and popular site covering the latest rumors/announcements on Apple while residing in Saudi Arabia.
Since leaving the role in January 2023, he's become a prominent tech commentator and Apple observer via his X account and publishing on Cuperti...
Gazanfarulla Khan travels from Doha, Qatar to Lisbon, Portugal to attend the 10th edition of Web Summit Lisbon - the main anchor event among all the Web Summit chapters held throughout the year.
Along with highlighting the Lisbon event's significance, the focus for the event has still been on AI and alongside the growing demands for it across industries.
With more than 71,000 attendees also including representation of women in star...
Personal branding has been growing in places like the USA/Canada and Europe, and the MENA region is slowly seeing a shift in embracing it. South Asians and Arabs believe their social standing is completely tethered to a fancy job title and/or prominent business brand.
We've invited Sabine Kuhn - founder of Talent and Truth, a boutique personal branding consultancy dedicated to building high-impact executive brands on LinkedIn and b...
Fellow tech enthusiasts! We're bringing you along on our journey to the first-ever Web Summit in Vancouver (previously known as Collision held in Toronto, Canada). We're diving into the heart of the tech world, sharing our personal experiences and the incredible energy of this event. From AI to machine learning, and the unique vibe of Vancouver, we're excited to share what we've discovered.
- Chapters -
00:00 Introduction to Web Summ...
We're back with another episode up in the air at 36,000ft and going even higher with a guest joining us on the move while on-ground. Shashank Nigam (CEO of aviation consultancy Simpliflying) joins us to talk about the evolving landscape of the aviation industry, focusing on sustainability, connectivity innovations, and the role of technology in enhancing customer experience.
We even explore the challenges and opportunities presente...
It's a new milestone for our podcast - we've brought our first guest, ready to unravel more of a big news piece we discussed a few episodes ago (hint: iHeartMedia).
Andy Kelly, the Senior Vice President of Ruby (iHeartMedia's branded content studio), joins us to discuss the vision behind their international expansion in partnership with the GCO of Qatar, the role of podcasting in the region, and the importance of creating localised...
This episode takes us to new heights — literally in every possible sense — as we decided to try something new. Gazanfarulla Khan was travelling to Montreal, and we recorded our episode live while Yasser was at home.
The venue and occasion made it quite an ideal scenario to discuss something relevant to the Middle East region - airlines/aviation/airports with the intersection of technology and AI, particularly focused on...
We recap the highlights and insights from the Web Summit Qatar 2025, focusing on the growth compared to 2024, the dominance of AI in discussions, keynotes from notable figures, iHeartMedia's official international foray in partnership with the Government Communications Office of Qatar, and the evolving entrepreneurial ecosystem in Qatar.
Gazanfarulla Khan joined in on-site to share first-hand details starting from the opening night...
China just pulled the rug and surprised everyone with DeepSeek, made with less-powerful NVIDIA AI chips even with export restrictions. Web Summit Qatar is just few weeks away, with a surprise announcement by iHeartMedia looking to go international. Lenovo is building a manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia, and some new features on Threads along with a major change to the Instagram profile grid. Plus, we decided to tease our plans...
It's a new year and already it's been filled with some tech and social challenges. Starting off with the TikTok ban in the US also impacting people outside the country.
Is Dubai now looking to be the Creator Economy hub in the MENA region? Influencers in Qatar should prepare for new legislation that will impact them.
At CES 2025, Delta is bringing YouTube Premium to its in-flight entertainment. What about the possibilities of Netfl...
After many months since our previous episode, Yasser Masood and Gazanfarulla Khan return for the next episode exploring some highlights of the year: recent developments in Qatar, including tech events focused on Web Summit Qatar 2025 and WSJ Tech Live, AI initiatives across the GCC region, Apple's expansion plans in Saudi Arabia, and Talabat's IPO.
Additional reference links during the episode:
Picking up from our previous episode, Khan and I continue to recap our experience at the inaugural Web Summit Qatar 2024.
The last tech event I attended was CES 2019 (before everyone was locked in). The next best opportunity came with the inaugural Web Summit Qatar in February 2024. We managed to cover as much with a divide-and-conquer approach. With many interesting panels/sessions covering multiple conference tracks, there was pl...
After quite a long time, I got to attend a tech event since the last one was in 2019 (yes, before everyone was locked in). The opportunity came with the inaugural Web Summit Qatar in February 2024.
Hosted by Yasser Masood and Gazanfarulla Khan, we managed to cover as much with a divide-and-conquer approach given the scheduling of many interesting panels/sessions covering multiple conference tracks. The best thing was the onsite p...
Let’s introduce ourselves! We’re two ‘Khans’ who want to make this podcast different. How? Our focus is on the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa) spanning tech, social media, digital and other related topics; sometimes, we'll even include the Indian Subcontinent (South Asia) region given the large diaspora present.
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