I'm Noha, and like the people you'll hear on this show, I know what it means to leave behind everything familiar: to find humor in the unexpected, to wrestle with loneliness, and to search for the people, places, and moments that make a new place feel like home.
I was nine years old when my family left Cairo for Omaha, Nebraska, carrying the mix of excitement and uncertainty that so many immigrants know well. I grew up between two worlds: the one I left behind, which my parents were trying to hold onto, and the one I was learning to call home, which was still learning to accept us.
Over the years, I built a career in law, finance, and energy. Those worlds taught me how to navigate complexity and understand the systems that shape our lives. But what has always fascinated me most isn't what appears in reports, contracts, or spreadsheets. It's people.
It's the stories shared over coffee, around kitchen tables, and in those quiet moments when someone opens up about where they've been, what they've lost, and how they've found their way. The loneliness of arriving where no one knows your story. The challenge of finding your people. The strange feeling of belonging everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
And then there are the moments that catch you by surprise. A familiar smell drifting through a crowded street. A meal that tastes exactly like childhood. A song that stops you in your tracks. The moments that somehow speak to both your heart and your mind, reminding you where you came from and how much of that place still lives within you.
I started Belonging Somewhere to create a space for those conversations.
Each week, I sit down with someone who has a story about leaving, arriving, and starting again. We'll talk about identity, ambition, family, sacrifice, resilience, and belonging. About the traditions we hold onto and the new ones we create. About the people who helped us find our footing and the moments that made us realize we were building a sense of home in a new place.
Because belonging isn't a place you're born into. It's something you build through relationships, memories, traditions, and the courage to begin again.
I am honored to help others share how they are building their version of home. I'm still building mine.
Welcome to Belonging Somewhere.