DW's trainees 2022-2023 introduce themselves

Laila Abdalla
Yourself in a tweet: 
Born 30 km off the Great Pyramid of Giza. Summer person. Don't ask why I've been in Germany for 6 years. Parents sent me to a German school in Cairo, so I've always been in this multikulti thing. Am a sucker for writing, making videos, any form of creative self-expression really.

You should definitely see/listen to/read:
See: "My Life as a Zucchini" – a stop motion animation by Claude Barras (originally in French). It's a very touching film and as a person who is interested in videos you'll appreciate the effort that went into it.
Listen to: Machiavelli Sessions.
Read: "Der Vorleser" by Bernhard Schlink. It's one of my favorite books ever.

I'd love to have a beer (or mineral water) with:
Harry Styles. He makes those interviewing him feel like interviewees because he gives them his undivided attention. I'd like to experience that. And if this dream ever comes true, I hope he'll be wearing black nail polish and lots of rings.

The world really needs to see a drone video on: 
The Siwa Oasis in the Egyptian desert, and which is about to be ruined by commercialization. Before this happens, the light teal salt lakes deserve to be seen and admired.

Instagram Story or Polaroid?
To be honest? Insta Story. Polaroid might seem to be the better answer, but I end up forgetting them somewhere. Might as well capture the moment and store it digitally. I'm thinking, "The less stuff I own when I move, the better." Nomad's brain.

 

Astrid Benölken

Yourself in a tweet:
Journalist on the move with a soft spot for absurd alliterations and punchy puns. Reported most recently from the Balkans and Eastern Europe. Always on the search for new perspectives, another houseplant, and pun(ny) barbershop names.

You should definitely see/listen to/read:
See: The series "The Good Place" that explores the question of what comes after death – and why there's no Frozen Yoghurt in paradise.

Listen to: The calls for change of the global Fridays-For-Future-movement that far too often fall on deaf ears.
Read: Siegfried Lenz's "The German Lesson"

I'd love to have a beer (or mineral water) with:
A cup of tea with John Oliver who does brilliant and witty journalism but who'd never call himself a journalist.

The world really needs to see a drone video on:
The Vjosa river in Albania, Europe’s only surviving wild river.

Instagram Story or Polaroid?
Instagram Stories for in between, Polaroids for eternity – or for however long they last on the fridge.

 

Fatima Hudoon
Yourself in a tweet: 
Local journalist branching out to world news. Globetrotter petrified of flying. Get excited about the small things like black vanilla ice cream. Multilingual, chess enthusiast and into data stuff.

You should definitely see/listen to/read:
See: The red rose city of Petra, Jordan (and ride a camel)
Listen to: 70s and 80s Somali disco music.
Read: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

I'd love to have a beer (or mineral water) with:
A mineral water (or Somali tea) with Ilhan Omar.

The world really needs to see a drone video on:
The one-of-a-kind dragon's blood trees on Socotra Island, off the coast of Yemen.

Instagram Story or Polaroid?
Polaroid because they capture the beauty in imperfect moments.

 

Shola Bilkis Lawal

Yourself in a tweet:
Wanted to be Jennifer Lopez's backup dancer as a kid. Avid fan of fiction and 90's music. If not squinting at the screen or in a book, hooked on Netflix or a podcast. From Lagos. Happy place is a sunny spot on the West African coastline.

You should definitely see/listen to/read:
Read: "Measuring Time" by Helon Habila and all of his other books. They lift you up and can bring you right down. 

I'd love to have a beer (or mineral water) with:
Marcus Aurelius and Jalal ad-Din Rumi.

The world really needs to see a drone video on: 
The Richat Structure, also known as the Eye of the Sahara. This rock structure in Mauritania looks from above like a giant eyeball. Some believe it's the site of a lost ancient civilization.

Instagram Story or Polaroid?
Instagram Story. I'm not patient enough for Polaroids.

 

Julett Pineda

Yourself in a tweet: 
Raised 30 km away from the Caribbean, but somehow still pale. Not intimidated by blank pages, Excel spreadsheets or lines of code. Always embracing doubt and bochinche.

You should definitely see/listen to/read:
See: Your loved ones often; any opera by Giacomo Puccini.
Listen to: Scientists; your gut feeling.
Read: Museum wall texts; "The Earth Turned to Bring Us Closer" by Eugenio Montejo.

I'd love to have a beer (or mineral water) with:
A mineral water with Maria Ressa or a gin tonic with Clarice Lispector.

The world really needs to see a drone video of: 
The rainforests in southern Venezuela and their deforestation, and include aerial views of illegal mines and clandestine airstrips.

Instagram Story or Polaroid?
Instagram Stories. Polaroids would take up too much space in my suitcase.

 

Sushmitha Ramakrishnan 

Yourself in a tweet:
Always looking for excuses to write in-depth features instead of news articles. Wrote on education, gender and labor for five years from India. Bird watcher and Briyani lover. 

You should definitely see/listen to/read: 
See: The Farthest – Voyager in Space 
Listen to: The Beatles of course! (Help! I’m stuck in 60s rock) and AR Rahman’s early music. 
Read: Brief Answers to Big Questions – Stephen Hawking (I promise you it’s a quick read) 

I would love to have a beer (or mineral water) with: 
Beer with Kamal Hassan and mineral water with Richard Feynman. 

The world really needs to see a drone video of: 
The forests of the Western Ghats in India during the monsoons. 

Instagram Story or Polaroid? 
Instagram. Too absent-minded to remember to carry a separate camera everywhere. 

 

Mathis Richtmann
Yourself in a tweet:
I like lemonade, Markdown and money markets. Don't like simple answers to complex questions.

You should definitely see/listen to/read:
See: "HyperNormalization" by Adam Curtis
Listen to: Yodeling from various regions of the world
Read: Meta's privacy policy

I'd love to have a beer (or mineral water) with:
A beer with Ayatollah Khomeini

The world really needs to see a drone video on:
Am not sure about the world, but I'd personally like to see drone footage of the moon surface.

Instagram Story or Polaroid?
TikTok video – because it's authentic.

 

Kaukab Shairani
Yourself in a tweet: 
Bite-sized badass. Pitching stories for a living and smashing patriarchy for a purpose. Not an activist.

You should definitely see/listen to/read:
Listen to: Your instinct. Always.
See: "We should all be feminists", a TED talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Read: "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley, "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy and the journalistic works of Robert Fisk.

I'd love to have a beer (or mineral water) with: 
A coffee with Malala Yousufzai.

The world really needs to see a drone video of: 
The Arctic up close – while it's still there.

Instagram Story or Polaroid? 
Instagram Story. Reduces weight and garbage!

 

Shabnam Surita

Yourself in a tweet:
Amateur cook. Passionate musician. Journalist by profession. Eternal migrant.

You should definitely see/listen to/read:
See: Parvathy Baul live in concert 
Listen to: Ravi Shankar's sitar under a starlit sky 
Read: "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri

I'd love to have a beer (or mineral water) with: 
A whiskey sour with Ella Fitzgerald. Would be great if Louis Armstrong dropped by.

The world really needs to see a drone video on: 
The people in the 'no man's land' enclaves along the India-Bangladesh border.

Instagram Story or Polaroid? 
Instagram Story. Always.
 

Silja Thoms

Yourself in a tweet:
Got my journalism start in the Rhineland and Ruhr area. After looking for a "nouvel angle" in France, my writing's now flowing. @DW #politics #current affairs #culture #literature

You should definitely see/listen to/read:
See: The ocean, the Dune du Pilat, the documentary "Für Sama", the film "Goodbye Lenin", paintings by Frida Kahlo und Otto Dix
Listen to: Stories told by contemporary witnesses; music by Aretha Franklin, the Beatles, Ludovico Einaudi, Yann Tiersen, Loyle Carner; the podcasts "In Our Time: Philosophy" and "Le goût de M"
Read: Poems (i.e. Rilke's "Der Panther", Heym's "Der Gott der Stadt"), "tschick", "Der Baader Meinhof Komplex", texts by Albert Camus

I'd love to have a beer (or mineral water) with:
A coffee with Simone de Beauvoir und Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The world really needs to see a drone video of: 
Glacier melting

Instagram Story or Polaroid?
Polaroid
 

Alexandria Williams
Yourself in a tweet: 
From Atlanta via Beijing to Nairobi and now Bonn. A Chinese and English speaking tech journalist who lives to tell stories about technology, humanity and the Global South.

You should definitely see/listen to/read:
Read: "The Old Drift" by Namwali Serpell, a multilayered novel set in Zambia that combines magical realism, sci-fi, and Zambian history; "Serpell", which totally influenced how I approach writing about tech and Africa.

I'd love to have a beer (or mineral water) with:
Buckminster Fuller, hands down. A must read for anyone interested in thinking critically about future tech.

The world really needs to see a drone video on:
Time-lapsed footage of Shenzhen, China over the past 40 years. It was a fishing village in the 1980s, now it's home to one of the world’s most influential tech ecosystems. Who wouldn’t want to see that?

Instagram Story or Polaroid?
Instagram Story with a Polaroid filter. Modern with a retro feel.