Abstract: The MeerKAT Absorption Line Survey (MALS) is a large project to blindly search for HI 21-cm and OH 18-cm absorption lines with the primary goal to better characterize the cold atomic and molecular gas in and around galaxies at 0≤z≤1.8. The survey is well underway using the 32K channel mode of the correlator spanning both L (900-1670MHz)and UHF (580-1015MHz) bands. Due to the excellent sensitivity and the large field-of-view of the MeerKAT telescope, the ~500 pointings of the survey will also deliver an extremely competitive HI 21-cm emission line and deep radio continuum (~million sources) survey. Further, the excellent channel resolution and sensitivity across the wideband allows for fantastic modeling of in-band spectral indices and high resolution faraday synthesis but also poses unprecedented challenges related to the large data volume (1.5 PB raw visibilities). I will elaborate on these challenges, the data release plan, multi-wavelength synergies, and the first results from the survey.