???? ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-

(all times CLT)

Everyone deserves a second shot at love: MBC streaming platform Shahid’s original productions are getting better and better, and one of our favorite offerings is Nemra 2 (English title: This Other Thing). Featuring a star-studded cast, the eight standalone episodes tell tales of unrequited, rekindled, abandoned, or unexpected love. The plot is largely dialogue-driven, with each episode involving tensions unfolding between two characters forced to be in close proximity for some time — such as the episode where Menna Shalaby and Ahmed Malek are locked in a bathroom at a house party, or an episode where Uber driver Maged El Kedwany must drive a distraught Sherine Reda to the airport in the middle of the night. With most stories leaving off on an inconclusive note, the show is less interested in showing us happily ever afters, but seeks rather to pose a series of gentle “what ifs?” The series has tinges of the New York Times’ popular Modern Love column, which has also been developed into a series, two seasons of which are available on Prime Video.

⚽ We’re still in the middle of the last international break of the year: There are no matches scheduled for today or tomorrow.

????EAT THIS TONIGHT-

A hidden gem on the Cairo-Alex Desert Road, KB’s Cake Studio offers a variety of cakes and “chewies” — the most adorable mini cookies that literally melt in your mouth — but their signature delicacy is hands down their tres leches cake. Get the classic if you want the real thing, and the coffee or rose water-infused cakes if you’re feeling adventurous. Don’t miss out on their ice cream cakes either, during what we hope are the final days of warm weather this year. You can order their desserts from their page on Instagram (Maadi and Tagamoa dwellers need to place their order one day ahead), or you can visit their tiny nook near Seasons Country Club.

???? OUT AND ABOUT-

(all times CLT)

Egyptian band Raï-na will take to the stage to share their love of Algerian Raï folk music from 9 pm tonight at Room Art Space & Cafe in New Cairo.

Egyptian Project are back with their signature blend of traditional folk music and Sufi lyrics at Cairo Jazz Club 610 in Sheikh Zayed from 8pm tomorrow.

Cairo fashion house Rasha Pasha will present their Winter/Spring 2021/22 collection, “To Cairo with Love,” at Downtown’s Townhouse Gallery this Thursday and Friday from 12pm-9pm.

???? UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-

The road to life-saving medical discoveries is rarely without risk: The global vaccination drive has collided with the era of misinformation to produce an ugly war of words between pro- and anti-vaxxers. In his new book You Bet Your Life, Paul A. Offit, virologist, pediatrician and head of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, attempts to inject some nuance back into the debate.

Offit’s book takes us on a journey through the history of medical innovation, from transplants to blood infusions to, yes, vaccines — and shows that for every breakthrough, there is also a human cost. A staunch advocate of covid-19 jabs, Offit possesses the bravery to admit what vaccine-makers often won’t: That “the first vaccines aren’t always the best, safest, and last.” This engaging re-appraisal of what went wrong in medicine in order for things to go right inspires awe for trial patients who risk everything in the hope of finding new cures—and a healthy dose of scepticism for the claim that new medical interventions can ever be foolproof.