They Tried To Bury Us with Tamer Kattan

They Tried To Bury Us with Tamer Kattan

Each week, an immigrant of the United States shares their American origin story. THEY TRIED TO BURY US is a weekly podcast hosted by Egyptian-born comedian Tamer Kattan and his mother Kity. Being the son of a Muslim father and a Jewish mother left Tamer struggling with notions of identity. It’s that exact struggle that Tamer and his mom dive into as they sit down with guests to hear about their American origin stories. “They tried to bury us, they didn’t know we were seeds” is a Mexican saying an elderly neighbor shared with Tamer to encourage him to never, ever give up. You’ll laugh at the light-hearted stories that shine a light on Halloween and other terrifying holidays for immigrants, other times you’ll cry at the love, courage and hope it takes to leave everything you know behind, just for the opportunity to pursue happiness. The goal of the show is to remind us all that the only “us and them” is US vs. the hate, greed and corruption of the people in positions of power.

Episodes

Ep 36: Ireland - Paying for Hugs

July 4, 2019 • 60 mins
Tamer and Kity start off season two with a BANG! They had a really cool conversation with hilarious actor, producer and comedian, Emma M Pyne. They dive deep into how differently femininity looks in America Vs. Europe, how lonely it can be to chase your dreams, how complaining about your country is one of the most patriotic things you can do and how much more in touch women are to their intuition than men.

Video versions of They Tr...
Mark as Played

Ep 35: Home in America - La Fin

June 26, 2019 • 50 mins
Tamer and Kity bring season one of the podcast to a close with a great conversation about our favorite episodes, how the podcast has changed our relationship for the better, what we’ve learned from guests, each other and what listeners can expect from our exciting season 2.

Video versions of They Tried to Bury Us: https://tinyurl.com/y8kxzelg

Podcast Website: https://www.comedypopupla.com/tamer

Follow us:
https://www.instagram.com/tame...
Mark as Played

Ep 34: Russia - A Big New Chapter

June 19, 2019 • 55 mins
Tamer and Kity welcome great friend, model and actor Svetlana Constantine to the podcast! We have a great conversation about how Sveta met the love of her life and current husband Ilia Constantine when she was just 15 years old. The wild romantic risks they took to be with each other, the separation they had to endure and how reuniting in America via their shared passion for acting and filmmaking fueled their relationship forward.


V...
Mark as Played

Ep 33: Iraq - Leeleeleelee

June 12, 2019 • 56 mins
Tamer and Kity welcome great friend, comedian, actor and director Paul Elia to the podcast! We have a great conversation about Paul’s Chaldean roots - it’s fun when Tamer repeatedly, mistakenly and embarrassingly says Caledonian (which actually refers to the Scottish Highlands, sooo not even close). What life was like in Iraq for Catholics. The challenges of finding your identity and faith when you grow up in a different country t...
Mark as Played

Ep 32: Puerto Rico - Double Immigrant

June 5, 2019 • 59 mins
Tamer and Kity welcome a great new funny friend, comedian Will J Melendez to the podcast. We have a great conversation about the challenges of having to constantly behave in a way that is acceptable to both American and Puerto Rican culture, coming out to Pentecostal parents and the bittersweet joy behind his lawyer father having to take a stock room job at Disney World.


Video versions of They Tried to Bury Us: https://tinyurl.com/y...
Mark as Played

Ep 31: Russia - Action. Cut. Action. Cut.

May 29, 2019 • 55 mins
Tamer and Kity welcome incredible actor and friend Ilia Constantine. Ilia comes from a town in the Russian mountains, not far from Siberia. A town where the natives have a reputation for being tough and stubborn. Ilia’s story is full of his home towns toughness. He sacrificed everything, even a roof to chase his dream, at several points becoming homeless. But it was in that darkness, while camped in Griffith park overlooking Warner...
Mark as Played

Ep 30: The Dominican Republic - Be better than Dad

May 22, 2019 • 61 mins
Tamer welcomes good friend, podcaster and comedian, Randy Valerio to the podcast. Randy is a native of Queens, NY and is a Boston based comedian. This is a great conversation about the powerful motivation that overwhelms you from witnessing an immigrant parent struggle to make ends meet.


Video versions of They Tried to Bury Us: https://tinyurl.com/y8kxzelg

Podcast Website: https://www.comedypopupla.com/tamer

Follow us:
https://www.inst...
Mark as Played

Ep 29: Eritrea - Born in a Refugee Camp

May 15, 2019 • 69 mins
Tamer welcomes long time friend, podcaster and comedian, Chase Abel. This is an amazing story that shows you the massive and lasting impact of war on a family. From being born in a refugee camp to finding out his parents...were not his biological parents at just 12 years old. This is a story of how a beautiful culture with such a rich history can harm its people with politics and war. One of the most inspiring episodes yet.


Video ve...
Mark as Played

Ep 28: India - K-Pop & Spice

May 8, 2019 • 63 mins
On this very special episode Tamer and Kity welcome amazing standup comedian and friend Srilatha Rajamani! And it’s a Live episode recorded at the Comedy Studio in Boston during the Women In Comedy Festival sponsored by HBO! Srilatha’s story is an inspiring story of an introverted Indian girl trying to find herself, becoming a strong Indian-American woman and mother who have her daughter all the things she wished for when she was a...
Mark as Played

Ep 27: Russia - Roller Coaster Ride

May 1, 2019 • 58 mins
Tamer and Kity welcome actress, comedian, and content creator Irina Voronina. Irina was born in a small town in Russia known as one of the most toxic places in the world. So toxic, the government would send ex-convicts there to work in chemical plants. In the middle of this dark environment, Irina dares to dream of becoming a model. She would not take no for an answer, and at the age of 20 she moved to Milan, Italy to make her drea...
Mark as Played

Ep 26: Taiwan - Work hard. Be nice.

April 25, 2019 • 60 mins
Tamer and Kity welcome One of Tamer’s favorite comedians, Jason Cheny to the podcast. Like Tamer, Jason is also a Winner of the World Series of Comedy and a nationally touring headliner with loads of credits from Fox, Hulu and truTV. We have a great conversation about what it was like for Jason to move to America alone from Taiwan to attend a military academy in Carlsbad, CA. His cross-cultural upbringing super powers his comedy an...
Mark as Played

Ep 25: Mexico City - Beauty is Distracting

April 17, 2019 • 57 mins
Tamer and Kity welcome Alan Angeles to the podcast. Alan is really talented, funny and wise-beyond-his-years, filmmaker, painter and artist who immigrated from Mexico City to Los Angeles with his mom and brothers. Like many, Alan’s family used a Coyote to help them cross the border, but at just 8 years old Alan was separated from his family and kept in a detention center until his father was able to get him out and try again, this ...
Mark as Played

Ep 24: Sweden - Dreaming Big

April 10, 2019 • 55 mins
Tamer and Kity are really excited to welcome Farshid Rafe Rafahi (@rafe_rafahi) to the podcast. Rafe is a really insightful, talented and kind Producer and Talent Manager with possibly, the most international origin story we’ve had on the podcast to date. Rafe was born in Tehran, but moved at just 10 months old to Gothenburg, Sweden (where his mom eventually met the love of her life - world famous Iranian singing star, Ebi) off to ...
Mark as Played

Ep 23: Iran - Baha’i

April 3, 2019 • 50 mins
Tamer and Kity welcome an ex-comedian and comedy show producer turned small-business owner. Patrick’s family immigrated to the United States when he was only three years old. Being the only Iranian in Santa Clarita wasn’t all that bad...until the Iran hostage crisis added death threats and broken windows to their everyday life. Even years later films like, Not Without My Daughter led to mysteriously sudden breakups. Through it all ...
Mark as Played

Ep 22: Italy - Crossing Brooklyn Bridge

March 27, 2019 • 58 mins
Tamer and Kity welcome Simone Nobili, a mega-talented creative copywriter who’s worked at some of the best advertising agencies in the world. A fascinating and inspiring story that starts with an 11 year-old boy in Riete, Italy watching a bubble gum commercial that featured a guy on a Harley crossing the Brooklyn Bridge and telling his mom he’d be moving to NYC one day. Simone kept that promise to his 11 year-old self and has sinc...
Mark as Played

Ep 21: Syria - Fitting In

March 20, 2019 • 55 mins
Kity is back! And just in time to have a great conversation with very funny comedian, writer and person Lynn Maleh. The three of them had a great conversation about what it means to fit in, the sacrifices we make to do so and how lonely it feels at times to be an “other.” She’s the Co-creator and Co-host of an awesome comedy show called #WolfDenComedy and you can follow this strong, funny lady on Twitter @heylynnmolly.

Video versio...
Mark as Played

Ep 20: Finland - Grown Ass Man

March 14, 2019 • 58 mins
Tamer welcomes one his favorite comedians in the world, Ismo Leikola to the podcast. ISMO started his comedy career in 2002 in his home country of Finland. There, he wrote and starred in 2 seasons of his own sitcom, ISMO. He filmed three Specials from 2008 to 2016, and has sold-out numerous concert halls and theaters across the UK and Finland. One day, when he was chopping branches in the woods listening to the Joe Rogan podcast,...
Mark as Played

Ep 19: Mexico - The Audacity to Dream

March 7, 2019 • 61 mins
It rained again in California so, we miss Kity on this episode of the podcast. Tamer finally convinces and sits down with our very own Paul Antonio Verdugo to share his families American origin story. His grandfather was a business owner who was wrongfully arrested for crimes he did not commit. a year later he had the audacity to run for office. That very audacity to dream big seems to be the trunk of the Castro-Verdugo family tree...
Mark as Played

Ep 18: Ukraine - Fight For Your Life

February 27, 2019 • 51 mins
Bogdan Grebeniuk was a professional swimmer who died and came back to life. The guy literally fought death...and won. At the tender age of 18, while training in a pool in Ukraine, his heart began to pound so intensely that he could see the skin on his chest rising up and down. He was unaware of a heart condition he was born with and was having a heart attack in the pool. For most, this would be the final chapter of an athletic care...
Mark as Played

Ep 17: Spain - When We’re Apart

February 20, 2019 • 46 mins
This is a story of love over politics. A story of a husband and wife who have to fight for the next three years (IF everything goes well) just to live under the same roof and start their lives. Jessica is an American woman in Maryland who is married to an Iranian man in Spain. It’s not the distance that’s keeping them apart, it’s the ban. If after hearing their story, you want to help couples like Jessica and Pouya there’s an amazi...
Mark as Played

Popular Podcasts

    Stuff You Should Know

    Stuff You Should Know

    If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

    Dateline NBC

    Dateline NBC

    Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

    24/7 News: The Latest

    24/7 News: The Latest

    The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.

    True Crime Tonight

    True Crime Tonight

    If you eat, sleep, and breathe true crime, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT is serving up your nightly fix. Five nights a week, KT STUDIOS & iHEART RADIO invite listeners to pull up a seat for an unfiltered look at the biggest cases making headlines, celebrity scandals, and the trials everyone is watching. With a mix of expert analysis, hot takes, and listener call-ins, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT goes beyond the headlines to uncover the twists, turns, and unanswered questions that keep us all obsessed—because, at TRUE CRIME TONIGHT, there’s a seat for everyone. Whether breaking down crime scene forensics, scrutinizing serial killers, or debating the most binge-worthy true crime docs, True Crime Tonight is the fresh, fast-paced, and slightly addictive home for true crime lovers.

    The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

    The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

    The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.

Advertise With Us
Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

Explore

iHeart

Live Radio

Podcasts

Artist Radio

Exclusives

News

Features

Events

Contests

Photos

Information

About

Advertise

Blog

Brand Guidelines

Contest Guidelines

Subscription Offers

Jobs

Get the App

Automotive

Home

Mobile

Wearables

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.