On January 25, 2016, Egyptian authorities kidnapped a Cambridge student who was doing PhD research on labor unions in Cairo. His name was Giulio Regeni. They suspected he was a British spy. 

Originally from Italy, Giulio was missing in Cairo for nine days before his mutilated body was discovered in a ditch next to a highway near the Great Pyramids. Italian prosecutors investigated the crime for five years and ultimately determined what many suspected from the start: Giulio had been tortured to death by Egyptian security officials. 

Beyond failing to cooperate with Italy’s investigation, Egypt made blatant attempts to thwart it — including the police murder of five innocent Egyptians as part of an elaborate cover up and the arrest of journalists and human rights lawyers who worked on the case. 

Finally, in February 2024, a trial for the murder of Giulio Regeni began in Rome. It’s still underway. But it’s a trial in absentia. The defendants, four Egyptian intelligence officials, still hold positions of power in the Egyptian government.

This documentary podcast series will tell the gripping narrative of Giulio Regeni’s murder and, through it, the broader story of Egypt’s political trajectory since the Arab Spring. It’s a story of revolution, deception, diplomatic pageantry, cover ups, conflicting interests, gag orders, a gang shootout, suspected spies, actual spies, an offshore oil field, an international arms deal, a brutal authoritarian regime, and a graduate student who never made it home.

WHY ME?

This is also my story. I grew up in Cairo from the age of 7, through the Arab Spring, curfews, school closures, regime changes. Nothing shook my sense of security, the feeling that I understood the world I was living in, like the murder of Giulio Regeni. It was during my senior year of high school, when I was 17 years old. At the time, my dad was a dean at the American University in Cairo, where Giulio was registered as a visiting scholar. I have a copy of a welcome letter they both signed. 

With a unique insider-outsider perspective on the case, I take listeners on a journey to answer questions that have haunted me for a decade — and feel more urgent than ever as I watch the U.S. spiral towards authoritarianism that looks increasingly like Egypt’s: Why did Egyptian authorities target Giulio? And how have Western democracies allowed a repressive autocrat to get away with murdering one of their own?

My personal connection to the case and experience growing up in Cairo make me uniquely well-positioned to tell this story, particularly to American and British audiences who may not be aware that Egypt today is facing its worst human rights crisis in modern history. To truly understand what happened to Giulio Regeni, and why, you have to understand the broader context of Egypt’s political trajectory since the Arab Spring — the individual tragedy is inextricable from the collective tragedy. This documentary podcast series will be the first piece of long-form journalism in any medium or language to pull all the threads of this story together.

WHY NOW?

Telling this story is more urgent now than ever. 2026 is the ten-year anniversary of the murder of Giulio Regeni, and the 15-year anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution/Arab Spring. This year I turn 28, the age Giulio was when he was murdered. The trial currently underway in Rome against four Egyptian security officials is set to finally conclude this July. 

But also, this story speaks directly to the political upheaval we’re living through. In the words of one of my sources: “The more we are willing to sacrifice truth and justice on the altar of ‘national interest,’ the more our own democracy becomes endangered.” Since Giulio’s murder, economic and military relations between Italy and Egypt have grown closer than ever, and today the U.S. is sending Egypt more support than ever because of its role as a so-called mediator in the war in Gaza. 

I’ve been working on this project over the past four years. During that time, I’ve watched the U.S. spiral towards an authoritarianism that looks increasingly like Egypt’s. Spreading disinformation, choking out free press, arresting university students, using the justice department as a weapon, executing citizens and then calling them terrorists — these are tactics that Trump shares with the President of Egypt, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, who Trump has called his “favorite dictator.”

REPORTING TO DATE:

Over the past four years, I have completed extensive original reporting. You can listen to a 25-minute “sizzle reel” here. My assets include…

• 30+ hours of recorded interviews with 22 sources, in addition to many on-background conversations, including:
  • Giulio’s close friends and colleagues from throughout his life;
  • The Italian prosecutor who was assigned to lead the investigation the day Giulio’s body was found, and is now leading the trial;
  • An anonymous former Egyptian intelligence insider (exclusive);
  • Egyptian human rights defenders who have been arrested and tortured by the regime;
  • Journalists who led global coverage of the case, including the deputy Editor in Chief of La Repubblica and the chief Africa correspondent for the New York Times;
  • Leading scholars and experts.

• Original recordings of every day of the ongoing trial in Rome since it began in February 2024, recorded by a local journalist for exclusive use in this series.

• Archival audio material, including:
  • The last known recording of Giulio Regeni alive, speaking Arabic, secretly captured by a police informant in Cairo 19 days before his abduction;
  • News reports dating back to 2016;
  • Audio from Giulio’s funeral and several memorial services; 
  • Recordings of Arab Spring protests and contemporary anti-regime rallies; 
  • Original ambient sound recorded on the streets of Cairo.

• Audio I’ve recorded myself on reporting trips to Rome and Cambridge.
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WHY INDEPENDENT FUNDING?

This project has already received strong validation within the industry. My pitch for the series was awarded second place at the 2025 RESONATE podcast festival, and I am currently working with Campside Media, an award-winning production studio, to pitch the series to distributors.

But the podcast industry is in a period of significant disruption. In the last three years, there have been widespread layoffs, studio closures, and a shift away from funding deeply-reported narrative series toward lower-cost formats, like celebrity chat shows. As a result, projects like this have become increasingly difficult to fund through traditional channels, despite their cultural impact and audience demand.

Even award-winning narrative podcasts are no longer guaranteed support. Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s won both a Pulitzer Prize and a Peabody Award in 2023—yet was cancelled by Spotify soon after, and its creator was unable to secure a home for a new season of the series. (You can read the full story in the 2025 Rolling Stone article “Who Killed the Narrative Podcast?”) 

Given these market realities, and the urgency of completing this project in 2026, I am not waiting on a distribution partnership to move forward. 

Up to this point, I’ve carried the project forward independently alongside other work. But to complete the reporting and production at the level it requires—and within this critical window—it now needs my full-time focus, along with the resources to bring on additional collaborators. That is why I am now seeking support.

THE ASK

My goal is to raise $95,000 in private donations to complete the reporting and production of this audio documentary series. 

By supporting this project, you are not only enabling ambitious, deeply reported storytelling in an industry that is moving away from funding this kind of work—you are also helping sustain independent journalism at a time when the free press is under increasing pressure, in the U.S. and around the world; helping hold global systems of power to account through a story about democracy and authoritarianism; and making possible a form of slow journalism that creates space for depth, context, and empathy across borders at a time of breaking-news overload.

Your contribution will fund:

• • A final reporting trip—to Giulio Regeni’s hometown of Fiumicello and to Rome to document the trial’s conclusion (est. $2,000)
  • Story editing to shape the narrative and ensure clarity (est. $25,000)
  • Sound design and music to bring the story to life (est. $15,000)
  • Independent fact-checking to ensure accuracy (est. $6,000)
  • Translation services for key interviews and materials (est. $1,000)
  • Insurance & legal fees including a full legal review (est. $11,000)

• Marketing leading up to and after launch (est. $10,000)

• Dedicated time to complete reporting and production (est. $25,000)