In this week’s episode, Enas Refaei, Farah Andrews and Maan Jalal start the show on a celebratory note after Culture Bites won a bronze prize for best co-hosts at this year’s Signal Awards. The annual awards honour the world’s most impactful podcasts in several categories, with winners selected either by a jury or by public votes.

Only weeks after Love is Blind Habibi started streaming, the show’s cast gathered for a highly anticipated reunion, in which fans finally found out which pairs stayed together and which unions fell apart. The Culture Bites hosts highlight the show’s success not just across the region, but around the world, where audiences learnt more about Arab marriage customs and the role families play. They discuss the tensions that unfold at the reunion, as well as the participants’ stereotype-busting personas.

Last week, the home of the late Lebanese artist Abdul-Hamid Baalbaki was destroyed by Israeli forces amid the continuing war in Lebanon. The house had doubled as an arts centre, which remained open to the public even after Baalbaki’s death in 2013. Not only was he an artist, but he was also a collector of precious pieces, some that date back to the first millennium BCE. Enas, Farah and Maan reflect on the tragic erasure of art during conflict and the challenging efforts to collect and archive it.

On the theme of cultural preservation, the hosts highlight notable Palestinian documentaries to watch, on the heels of Palestine Cinema Days which took place last weekend. The team discuss The Wanted 18, a partly-animated story about a Palestinian village that buys cows to stop relying on Israeli milk. Another is Aida Returns, a story about director Carol Mansour’s mother who struggles with Alzheimer’s but vividly remembers the hometown of her youth, Jaffa, up until her final return to it.

This week on Culture Bites, Farah Andrews and Maan Jalal step back to a prehistoric era of the UAE’s story. The Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi will recreate models of landscapes and wildlife as they once existed millions of years ago.

Visitors will be able to discover a natural world that’s unique to the country and the Arab region at large. This includes galleries that showcase the topography of Abu Dhabi before there was an Arabian Gulf, with its winding rivers, crocodiles and hippopotamuses. The hosts share their enthusiasm about being able to witness an important part of the region’s history that’s often overlooked. Construction of the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi is expected to be completed next year.

Two big cultural events are coinciding this year, bringing colour and festivity to the UAE. Diwali and Halloween events will see masses turn out to celebrate across the Emirates. The BAPS Hindu Mandir in Abu Dhabi is expecting hundreds of thousands of visitors for one of the biggest festivals in the Hindu calendar. Meanwhile, in Dubai, fireworks will light up the sky at the waterfront promenade in Al Seef and Global Village. Maan talks about his plans to celebrate Diwali this year and Farah shares her creative Halloween costume idea.

Earlier this month, The National compiled a list of the 50 most influential Arabic novels of the 20th century, highlighting works that have significantly impacted Arabic literature and culture. The hosts discuss the process of shortlisting the titles to capture the diversity of the region at a critical time in Arabic storytelling that grapples with issues of identity, colonisation, politics and social change. Maan recommends to Farah his top picks to read, including Naguib Mahfouz’s Cairo Trilogy and Ghassan Kanafani's Men in the Sun.

On Culture Bites this week, Enas Refaei and Farah Andrews round up their favourite Halloween films to binge before October 31. From the classically frightening to the unsettling and gory, they share suggestions across several horror genres.

From Jordan Peele’s chilling alien mystery Nope to the grotesque body horror The Substance starring Demi Moore, there’s something for everyone. The hosts also compare the remakes of family-friendly spooky classics like Beetlejuice and Roald Dahl’s The Witches.

The ecology-focused Al Sidr Environmental Film Festival takes place this week at NYUAD’s Arts Centre under the theme All Living Beings. Enas and Farah highlight some of the most compelling features at the event, including two local short films developed by the UAE platform Climate Tribe. They discuss the festival’s mission for audiences to develop a greater appreciation for the interconnectedness of our worldly creatures.

After the tragic early death of former One Director star Liam Payne at the age of 31, fans around the world showed an overwhelming outpouring of emotions as they grieved. The singer was only 14 when he was thrust into the limelight, eventually spending more than half his life in the public eye. As his struggles with addiction and untimely death raise questions over the welfare of child stars, the hosts discuss the pressures of growing up within the entertainment industry.