Inside Saudi Arabia

Your neck pain and your gut might be the same problem. This week we sit down with Peter from Tonic The Method on what wellness actually looks like in Riyadh right now.
 
Peter is a physical therapist and Chinese-medicine specialist who moved here from Lebanon expecting wellness to rank near the bottom of people's priorities. He was wrong. We get into the nerve that connects your neck to your stomach, the breathing fix he reaches for before any machine, which everyday foods are quietly acidic, the exact contrast-therapy order he recommends, and why he reads teeth grinding as a clue to something bigger. Plus the colon-massage story Vesna will never live down.
 
Hosted by Carly and Vesna.
Listen and follow wherever you get podcasts: https://linktr.ee/insidesaudi
 
Chapters:
00:00 Intro and Teaser Highlights01:18 Welcome - What This Episode Is About03:13 Meet Peter and Introducing Tonic 18006:15 Tonic's Services and Kingdom Tower Launch11:47 The Wellness Scene in Riyadh13:21 The Gut and Neck Pain Connection19:13 Diet: Alkaline vs Acidic Foods24:21 Pressotherapy Explained26:33 Infrared Sauna and Cold Plunge33:58 Red Light Therapy39:29 Laser Body Remodeling45:59 EMS (Electromagnetic Muscle Stimulation)48:19 The Tonic Signature Massage and Colon Cleanse52:26 PEMF (Pulsed Electromagnetic Fields)56:10 Dry Needling and Electroacupuncture59:22 Personalised Protocols and Recommendations

After a run of guest episodes, we did something different.. a live summer Q&A on TikTok, answering your questions in real time, and turned it into this week's episode. No guest, just us catching up before the summer break.
We get into what a Saudi wedding at the Ritz-Carlton is actually like, the malls worth your time in Riyadh, the Saudi and Gulf abaya designers we actually buy from, learning Arabic from scratch, and the question that started this whole show: why Saudi, and would we choose Riyadh again.
Inside Saudi is the English-language podcast about daily life in Saudi Arabia today, co-hosted by two moms living in Riyadh, made for Saudis, residents, and anyone trying to make sense of the Gulf during Vision 2030.
Listen wherever you get podcasts: https://linktr.ee/insidesaudi
CHAPTERS 00:00 Cold open
01:42 Welcome — summer catch-up, live on TikTok
02:47 Summer plans: UK, Greece, Macedonia
05:24 The Saudi wedding at the Ritz-Carlton
09:08 Why we chose Saudi
13:44 Our Saudi road trip — Taif, Jeddah, AlUla, the Eastern Province
18:05 Learning Arabic
21:55 What weddings here are really like
26:14 The malls we love in Riyadh
28:45 Abayas and Saudi designers
31:48 Beauty and salons
35:48 Saudi schools
38:10 Riyadh or Jeddah — would we choose it again
38:51 What surprised us most: the hospitality
45:20 What is the podcast about
 

Saudi Arabia had no sunscreen of its own, in one of the hottest climates on earth. Ghadi Alshehri spent three years fixing that.
 
Ghadi is the founder of Borderline Beauty, the first homegrown Saudi sunscreen. She sat down with Carly and Vesna in Riyadh to talk about the gap she found, the science most of us were never taught, and what it takes to build something Saudi-made right now.
 
In this episode:
- How she found the gap on an ordinary Tuesday at work
- Chemical vs mineral sunscreen, and why it actually matters
- Why UV passes through glass, clothes, and cloudy skies
- Three years of formulation in Korea, and the "impossible" brief
- Growing up between Manchester and Riyadh
- Vision 2030, being seen, and building something local
- Her advice for the next Saudi founder
 
Listen anywhere you get your podcasts: pod.link/insidesaudi
 
Follow Inside Saudi:
Instagram @insidesaudiarabia
TikTok @insidesaudiarabia
Hosts: @caroverman and @vesnapetrovicx
Guest: Borderline Beauty @borderlinebeautysa
 
Chapters
00:00 The country with no sunscreen
00:35 Meet Ghadi and Raghad
02:00 The Tuesday she found the gap
05:00 Chemical vs mineral, explained
09:00 The myths: glass, clothes, cloudy days
13:00 Three years, Korea, and a formula that didn't exist
18:00 Manchester to Riyadh, and coming back
24:00 Vision 2030 and building something Saudi-made
30:00 Advice for the next founder
 
#SaudiArabia #Vision2030 #MadeInSaudi #SaudiBeauty #Riyadh

There are seven routes to Saudi Premium Residency. Most people only know about one or two of them, and almost everyone thinks Vesna got hers because of Instagram. This week, Carly and Vesna walk through all seven, what each costs, what each unlocks, and what they wish they'd understood before they started navigating it themselves.
Vesna holds Premium Residency as a secondary, sponsored by her husband, and she's open about what that actually means in practice: full benefits for him, partial for her, and a learning curve for the whole family. Carly doesn't have it. Together they break down limited-duration, unlimited-duration, special talent, gifted, investor, entrepreneur, and real-estate routes, with the actual SAR figures and the catch on each one.
A few things to know up front: this isn't legal advice, the Premium Residency website is the only source you should trust to apply, and the math fact-check halfway through is worth staying for. Part two, on starting a business once you have residency, is coming.
Listen wherever you get podcasts: https://linktr.ee/insidesaudi
Inside Saudi is the English-language podcast about daily life in Saudi Arabia today, co-hosted by two moms in Riyadh.
Follow Inside Saudi: Instagram: @insidesaudiarabia TikTok: @insidesaudiarabia
Carly: @caroverman (Instagram) @carlyoverman (TikTok)
Vesna: @vesnapetrovicx
 
Chapters:
00:00 Cold open
00:53 Welcome + why this episode
03:00 Seven routes, overview
07:20 Route 1: Limited duration (100,000 SAR/year)
08:45 Route 2: Unlimited duration (800,000 SAR)
10:39 Route 3: Special talent residency
13:13 Route 4: Gifted residency (culture & sports)
16:10 Route 5: Investor residency (7M SAR + 10 jobs)
16:45 Route 6: Entrepreneur residency (two tiers)
21:02 Route 7: Real estate residency (4M SAR unmortgaged)
22:04 Process, timeline, background checks
24:58 Myths people get wrong
27:31 The big summary
 

Cedric Dahmoun said no to Saudi three times before he came. He stayed five years.
He's a Belgian-Algerian content creator with 600,000 followers, most of whom found him through TikToks showing what life in Saudi actually looks like. He came during COVID from Dubai, with no Arabic, no plan, and a feeling that he'd run out of versions of himself to try in Europe.
In this episode he tells us about the night a stranger followed him through the dark in the south of Saudi and what happened next. He talks about leaving his phone on the coffee table for five years and what that says about the city he chose. He explains what he calls "the imam of TikTok," and why he doesn't argue with them. And he tells us about his next thing: walking from Riyadh to Mecca by camel, one month, the old way, because he wants to feel how the pilgrimage used to be done.
Carly and Vesna hosted from the studio in Riyadh. Cedric was in Saudi dress and a Shure mic.
Episode 28. Listen wherever you get podcasts.
With Carly Overman and Vesna Petrovic.
 
00:00 Cold open00:58 Welcome from Carly and Vesna03:43 Meeting Cedric05:30 The road to Riyadh06:25 No three times07:15 Dubai vs Riyadh09:42 Going full-time on social12:14 Converting to Islam13:42 First viral video15:07 Taif and the baboons18:23 By camel to Mecca22:31 Giving back to Saudi23:11 His father, and stopping alcohol25:14 Why he feels safe27:01 The compound trap28:38 3am stranger in Fayfa33:12 Real Islam34:06 The imam of TikTok35:21 The phone on the table38:24 Building 600K42:50 Handling negativity45:13 The spy comments46:16 Media authority call48:24 Authenticity and respect53:58 Advice for new creators01:01:55 Best platforms01:03:14 Why he deletes his camera roll01:04:40 Goodbye and Jeddah invite01:07:21 The Vesna and Alex story01:08:27 Conflict in Saudi vs Belgium01:13:20 Serbian content question01:16:36 Closing

Alex Tashbaeva stopped going to school at twelve. She'd already been on a tennis court eight hours a day since she was five, and her Uzbek-Soviet parents had decided she was going to be a champion. By sixteen she'd left home; by nineteen she was the only girl on a ten-person coaching team flying to Riyadh to build out the Saudi national tennis programme.
She said yes on a phone call. She knew nothing about the country.
This week we talk to Alex about what those first years actually looked like — coaching the under-14 boys' national team, building the women's programme alone over the summers when her colleagues went home to Europe, and how the Jeddah Yacht Club years pulled her sideways into hospitality and events. She tells us why she resisted calling herself a content creator long after her TikToks were working, and what she sees in Saudi now that she didn't five years ago.
She and Cedric are in Riyadh now and heading back to Jeddah. There's a marketing agency, a YouTube studio, and plans we get into.
Listen wherever you get podcasts: pod.link/insidesaudi
 
00:00:00 Cold open00:01:00 Welcome and intro00:02:40 Two fires: living with Cedric00:05:07 Moving to Saudi: the path through the US and Spain00:05:57 Tennis from age five and an Uzbek-Soviet upbringing00:08:16 Leaving home at sixteen00:10:38 The phone call: only girl on a ten-person team to Riyadh00:11:13 Arriving in Saudi with no expectations00:12:42 Coaching the national under-14 boys00:14:26 The pivot to hospitality at Jeddah Yacht Club00:17:53 Meeting Cedric00:18:09 Why she refused to call herself a content creator00:20:11 Building the women's programme alone00:24:00 Medina, six months ago00:26:25 Jeddah vs Riyadh: pace, traffic, and where you actually live00:31:36 What they're building next00:34:30 Tips for starting on social in Saudi00:44:00 Reading the comments and adjusting the content00:50:51 What's next

How do you transition from the intense world of derivatives trading at Goldman Sachs and private client tax at KPMG to launching a global luxury swimwear brand? In this episode of Inside Saudi, we sit down with Katleya Nielsen and Ayesha Mahomed, the visionary founders of Lanuuk.
They pull back the curtain on the "maternal shift" that led them to leave their 10-year corporate careers to solve a massive gap in the market: fashionable, high-quality modest swimwear. From packing orders on their living room floors to a landmark partnership with Aquarabia—Saudi Arabia's first and largest water theme park—Katleya and Ayesha share how they built a global empire with zero paid marketing. We dive into supply chain secrets, the reality of being "control-freak" founders, and how they are redefining luxury for the modern woman in Riyadh.
What you’ll learn:
How to pivot from high-finance/accounting into a creative industry.
The strategy behind building a global brand through organic growth and zero ad spend.
Sourcing sustainable fabrics in Turkey and managing craftsmanship in the Philippines.
Identifying the massive retail gap for high-end modest swimwear in Saudi Arabia.
Behind the scenes of the Aquarabia x Lanuuk partnership.
 
Chapters:
00:00 Intro: The Goldman Sachs & KPMG Pivot
01:25 Meet the Founders: Katleya and Ayesha
03:30 The 10-Year Corporate Grind
05:40 The "Maternal Shift": Why We Left
08:45 The Problem: Why Modest Swimwear Didn't Exist
12:15 Manufacturing Secrets: The Philippines & Turkey
17:40 Scoping Riyadh: The Saudi Retail Gap
21:10 The Viral Blow-Up: $0 Ad Spend
32:20 "Control Freaks": Managing a Global Brand
41:10 Aquarabia: Saudi’s Biggest Modest Swim Partnership
47:00 Vogue & Organic PR

What is life in the Kingdom actually like when you step outside the "compound bubble"?
In this episode of Inside Saudi, we sit down with viral creator Senan, a "Westernized Saudi" who has mastered the art of explaining his culture to the world.
We start with a quick story about how an internet misunderstanding actually brought us together, but the real conversation begins when we dive into the local experience. Senan reveals the "unprofessional" slang your tour guide will never teach you and explains why delivery drivers really need that WhatsApp pin (from his own experience as a former driver!).
We also explore the reality of Saudi safety—from leaving your car running while you grab coffee to the peace of mind of raising kids in Riyadh. We tackle the big cultural questions: the truth about gender mixing, why asking for a mother's name is taboo, and the hilarious debate over Western vs. Saudi bathrooms.
In this episode, we discuss:
• The "Chicken Nugget" Identity: What it means to be a Westernized Saudi• Delivery Driver Confessions: Why the app location is never enough 📍• Local Slang 101: Beautiful phrases for age and hospitality• The Safety Factor: Why expats feel so secure in the Kingdom 🛡️• TikTok vs. Instagram: Creating for two completely different audiences• Thobe Etiquette: How to wear the traditional dress the right way• The "Just Do It" System: Senan’s secret to viral content success
Follow Senan:https://www.instagram.com/senan_ar/https://www.tiktok.com/@senan_arfaj
Follow Inside Saudi:https://www.tiktok.com/@insidesaudiarabiahttps://www.instagram.com/insidesaudiarabia
Chapters:
0:00 – Moving past our internet misunderstanding1:20 – Being a “Westernized Saudi” (The Chicken Nugget nickname)4:10 – Learning the hard way: Complaining online5:55 – Answering delivery calls while snorkeling in the Red Sea7:38 – Why Saudi delivery drivers ALWAYS call you for a pin12:00 – TikTok vs. Instagram: Creating for two different worlds13:12 – Saudi Slang 101: The beautiful meaning of "May God give you more years"17:18 – The struggle of being a vegetarian in the land of Kabsa20:56 – The Ultimate Shawarma Guide: Mama Noura & local favorites27:15 – Genuine creators vs. "Views chasing" in Saudi culture33:10 – Why Saudis love escaping to London for the weather43:40 – The "Unprofessional" slang your tour guide won't teach you47:15 – Navigating the Gender Mixing question: Taboos & change56:10 – Thobe Etiquette: How to get it tailored correctly1:04:05 – The Reality of Safety: Handbags, cars, and raising kids1:08:10 – Breaking the "Compound Bubble": Why you need to live local1:10:55 – The Great Bidet Debate: Why the West is missing out1:16:15 – Why talking about toilets is actually a taboo1:22:10 – The "Just Do It" Viral Content System

What does it really take to succeed in Saudi Arabia?
In this episode, we sit down with Mahmoud Moamenah, founder of Sudasi Business Solutions, to explore why understanding Saudi culture is the key to both life and business here.
From growing up in Saudi and living abroad, to helping expats and businesses navigate the market, Mahmoud shares insights on integration, identity, and why many people never fully experience the country.
We cover:
Why living in a bubble holds people back
The difference between compound life and real Saudi
How culture impacts business success
The role of hospitality, religion, and community
Why Saudi feels so different
Whether you are an expat, a founder, or just curious about life in Saudi, this episode offers a perspective you will not hear anywhere else.
 
Episode Chapters:
00:00 Intro and what this episode is about00:10 Living in a bubble abroad01:30 Why Saudi is not what you see in the media02:00 Why business success is about culture03:05 Mahmoud Moamenah’s background06:20 Studying in the US and new perspectives08:35 How stories shape how we see the world10:05 Why Saudi will never lose its culture12:30 Culture shock and moving abroad13:00 Experiencing countries vs living in a bubble15:30 Moving to Washington DC16:20 Teaching Arabic and culture to diplomats18:00 Saudi vs media perception20:45 Why integration matters in Saudi21:20 Language, dialects and culture24:20 Why expats stay in their comfort zone26:58 Why Saudi culture feels different28:30 Community, hospitality and generosity30:40 What family really means in Saudi33:45 Charity, zakat and giving37:20 Returning to Saudi and starting a business38:50 Compound life vs real Riyadh40:15 Helping expats integrate into Saudi life41:50 Bringing Saudis and expats together43:00 Saudi weddings and social life45:00 Ramadan lifestyle and routines47:30 Experiencing Ramadan as an expat
49:10 Moving into consulting and business50:00 Building Elevate Spark53:00 Networking and partnerships in Saudi57:00 Creating opportunities and supporting talent01:01:00 Why culture drives business success01:05:00 Advice for expats and founders01:09:00 The future of Saudi01:12:00 Final reflections01:14:30 Outro

Saudi Arabia is changing fast, and people around the world are starting to pay attention.
In this first ever Inside Saudi Live, we bring together three very different perspectives on what life in Saudi is actually like.
Ali Almeshaal is a Saudi media professional and tourism entrepreneur who began his career in television and now works across communications and tourism in the region.
Micah Nicole is a long time Saudi radio host and musician who has lived and worked in the Kingdom for more than a decade, witnessing the country’s cultural shifts firsthand.
Coach Kaiser is a fitness creator who came to Saudi for five days and ended up quitting his job and moving to Riyadh shortly after.
Together we talk about misconceptions about Saudi, how the country has changed over the past decade, what it’s really like living here as an expat, and why so many people are suddenly curious about the Kingdom.
From culture and social media to tourism and expat life, this conversation explores the realities of building a life in Saudi Arabia.
If you are curious about Saudi or thinking about visiting or moving here, this episode is for you.
Podcast Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Inside Saudi Live01:40 Welcome to the live podcast02:28 How the live show came together05:18 Introducing Ali Almeshaal, Micah Nicole and Coach Kaiser06:24 Ali Almeshaal’s first viral YouTube video08:15 How music used to operate in Saudi09:46 Saudi fitness culture vs Australia11:12 Communicating in Saudi culture12:46 Handling negativity online14:38 Why creators are documenting Saudi16:44 Coach Kaiser’s five day trip that led to moving to Saudi18:46 How Riyadh became international21:00 Advice for people moving to Saudi23:25 Misconceptions about living in Saudi25:28 Riyadh vs other Saudi cities26:40 The moment Saudi started feeling like home28:12 The phases every expat experiences30:30 The viral video that started Coach Kaiser’s content32:01 Why expats sharing Saudi is valuable34:58 Understanding Saudi culture as a foreigner38:50 Saudi tourism and the Red Sea projects42:22 Why the world is curious about Saudi43:32 Work life balance in Saudi44:22 Travel habits in Saudi vs the West46:14 The biggest assumption about living in Saudi