Surer and Saredo Mohamed’s podcast, On Things We Left Behind, talks to some of those who have experienced conflict, and allows them to tell their own stories
If there’s one thing podcasters should be good at, it’s talking. And so it is with Surer and Saredo Mohamed. There isn’t a moment I’m not drawn into the 90-minute Zoom call with the sisters, whose voices tag-team through their equally compelling new podcast, On Things We Left Behind – although never in the same episode, since they say people can’t tell their voices apart. “Not even our mum!” they laugh.
I don’t know which sister is more eager to credit the other. Surer says that Saredo is the heart and soul of the project. Saredo says her older sister is the mind and the membrane. Their story-driven podcast masterfully explores the hidden afterlife of war, and was conceived as conversations between them – children of Somali refugees who were forced to flee their homeland at the outbreak of civil war 30 years ago. The sisters were raised in
Canada and are now based in the
UK. Surer, 26, is in Cambridge pursuing a PhD; Saredo, 24, is a master’s graduate from the
London School of Economics, currently working as a policy researcher.