The Fire These Times

This is a conversation with Karena Avedissian and Anna, and a collaboration with their podcast Obscuristan. The main thread of our conversation was about Armenian-ness and how complicated of an identity it is due to the old and transnational history of Armenians. Some have ancestry in the Ottoman empire and therefore feel closer to the Levant, especially after the genocide which also exiled so many to my part of the world. Others lived under the Russian empire and then the USSR. There are of course those who moved to Europe and North America and elsewhere as well. Karena is of Armenian-Iranian origins and grew up in the US, but lives in Armenia. Anna is from Artsakh and Armenia and is currently in the US. So we inevitably had to also talk about Armenian proximity to Whiteness in the US and why it's important to understand it. We brought up Ukraine a lot as well as Russia's full-scale invasion last year prompted them to launch their podcast which partly seeks to decolonize Russian history and imperialism. We also brought up Azerbaijan's ongoing violence against Armenians in Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh. Also: Lebanon as Beirut has a special place in Armenian history, something I didn't really know until I myself visited Armenia. Also: Gilmore Girls, coz why not. ---- Mentions and Book Recommendations: Karena: The Politics of Exile by Elizabeth Dauphinee Anna: The Trauma of Caste: A Dalit Feminist Meditation on Survivorship, Healing, and Abolition by Thenmozhi Soundararajan (who will be a guest soon as well!) Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis ---- You can support The Fire These Times on patreon.com/firethesetimes with a monthly or yearly donation and get a lot of perks including early access, exclusive videos, monthly hangouts, access to the book club, merch and more. Host: Joey Ayoub Producer: Joey Ayoub Music: Rap and Revenge Main theme design: Wenyi Geng Sound editor: Ibrahim Youssef Episode design: Joey Ayoub ---- You can also follow updates on Mastodon | Twitter | Instagram | TikTok | Website & Mailing List Joey Ayoub can be found on Mastodon | Twitter | Instagram | Website The newsletter is available on Substack

This is a conversation with Morgan Govin and Molly Hagan. This is how Morgan introduces herself on her website: "I spent five years addicted to heroin and four years incarcerated as a direct result of my addiction. I lost my mom and four close friends to  overdose. I found a system of injustice within the US justice system. Now, I work to change the systems that harmed us. I strive for safer, healthier communities." Morgan is also JSTOR Daily’s engagement editor for the American Prison Newspapers collection. Molly is a writer, journalist and photographer whose piece "The Meaning of Time in The Hour Glass" kickstarted this conversation.  We also talked about Morgan's experience, about the US' brutal carceral system, and the meaning of time in prison. We also talked about logics of scarcity and what we lose, wherever we live, when incarcerated people are rendered invisible. ---- Mentions and Book Recommendations: Episode with Shareah Taleghani on Syrian Prison Literature and the Poetics of Human Rights Episode with Kate Zen on Basebuilding, Sex Workers' Rights and Mutual Aid Molly: A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster by Rebecca Solnit The Dead Are Arising: the Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne and Tamara Payne Solitary: A Biography by Albert Woodfox Morgan: Corrections in Ink: A Memoir by Keri Blakinger Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair by Danielle Sered You're Wrong About podcast ---- You can support The Fire These Times on patreon.com/firethesetimes with a monthly or yearly donation and get a lot of perks including early access, exclusive videos, monthly hangouts, access to the book club, merch and more. Host: Joey Ayoub Producer: Joey Ayoub Music: Rap and Revenge Main theme design: Wenyi Geng Sound editor: Ibrahim Youssef Episode design: Joey Ayoub

This conversation with two Iranian activists, both of whom will remain anonymous for obvious reasons. 'Vicky' joined us from Tehran, and Kiana from Manchester. We talked about the recent Iranian uprising following the murder of Jina 'Mahsa' Amini and why 'reforming' the regime cannot work. We spoke about the strikes, the clear gendered aspect of the protests, and what might come next. We also spoke about the now-familiar campism that we see in much of the world whereby a shallow 'anti-imperialism' is often enough for folks to erase the agency of activists and protesters in other countries. Check out 'Women for Iran': https://linktr.ee/WomenForIran ---- Mentions and Book Recommendations: - In Defense of Sentimentality by Robert C. Solomon - The Wind in My Hair: My Fight for Freedom in Modern Iran by Masih Alinejad ---- You can support The Fire These Times on patreon.com/firethesetimes with a monthly or yearly donation and get a lot of perks including early access, exclusive videos, monthly hangouts, access to the book club, merch and more. Want to help our with transcribing episodes? Check out this link. ---- You can also follow updates on Mastodon | Twitter | Instagram | TikTok | Website & Mailing List Joey Ayoub can be found on Mastodon | Twitter | Instagram | Website The newsletter is available on Substack ---- Host: Joey Ayoub Producer: Joey Ayoub Music: Rap and Revenge Main theme design: Wenyi Geng Sound editor: Joey Ayoub Episode design: Joey Ayoub

I'm excited to share with you my convo with Kavita Krishnan, Promise Li and Romeo Kokriatski on why the idea of multipolarity needs to be understood & critiqued, and why the left cannot abandon anti-authoritarianism and internationalism. Kavita Krishnan is an Indian Marxist and Feminist who used to be a politburo member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation who made news a few months ago when she resigned over Ukraine. Promise Li is a US-based Hong Konger organizer and part of the Left diaspora collective Lausan. Romeo Kokriatski is a Ukrainian-American journalist, managing editor of the New Voice of Ukraine and co-host of the Ukraine Without Hype podcast. Promise is also a returning guest of the pod, and Romeo's been on a few times as well. Due to Russia's ongoing bombardments of Ukraine, Romeo's power went out towards the end of the episode so we had to continue without him.  Slava Ukraini. ---- Mentions and Book Recommendations: - My piece for Lausan Collective: The periphery has no time for binaries - Majoritarian State: How Hindu Nationalism is Changing India by Angana P. Chatterji, Thomas Blom Hansen and Christophe Jaffrelot  (Kavita) - Money Power and Financial Capital in Emerging Markets: Facing the Liquidity Tsunami by Ilias Alami (Promise) Regular updates on India can be found on The India Cable ---- You can support The Fire These Times on patreon.com/firethesetimes with a monthly or yearly donation and get a lot of perks including early access, exclusive videos, monthly hangouts, access to the book club, merch and more. Want to help our with transcribing episodes? Check out this link. ---- You can also follow updates on Mastodon | Twitter | Instagram | TikTok | Website & Mailing List Joey Ayoub can be found on Mastodon | Twitter | Instagram | Website The newsletter is available on Substack ---- Host: Joey Ayoub Producer: Joey Ayoub Music: Rap and Revenge Main theme design: Wenyi Geng Sound editor: Ibrahim Youssef Episode design: Joey Ayoub

In which I talk about Seinfeld with fellow Arab millennial and writer (and previous guest of the podcast) Ayman Makarem. It's that simple!  What made that sitcom so special to Ayman as a queer kid from Lebanon? And what is it like to watch shows that don't have you in mind as their target audience?   This is a sample episode. To listen to the full episode please head out to http://www.patreon.com/firethesetimes and get access to exclusives, monthly hangouts, book clubs and more for $5 a month. Check out Ayman's project Bizri#6 and his comic series with Hisham Rifai for Unicorn Riot: Revolution in Every Country Comic Series: Episode 1 – Syria: Erasing an Inconvenient Revolution Revolution in Every Country Comic Series: Episode 2 – Sudan: Building Power from Below ---- Book. series and movie recommendations: Ayman's: Out of Place: A Memoir by Edward Said (book) First season of Rami (series) Wajib by Annemarie Jacir (film) Guapa by Saleem Haddad (previous guest of the pod) Beer in the Snooker Club by Waguih Ghali  Scheherazade Goes West by Fatema Mernissi Joey's: Let's talk about myths, baby! (podcast)  Witch, Please (podcast) Comedy Against Work: Utopian Longing in Dystopian Times by  Srsly Wrong (podcast) Circe by Madeline Miller ---- Want to help our with transcribing episodes? Check out this link. ---- You can also follow updates on Mastodon | Twitter | Instagram | TikTok | Website & Mailing List Joey Ayoub can be found on Mastodon | Twitter | Instagram | Website The newsletter is available on Substack ---- Host: Joey Ayoub Producer: Joey Ayoub Music: Rap and Revenge Main theme design: Wenyi Geng Sound editor: Joey Ayoub Episode theme design: Joey Ayoub

Daniel Macmillen Voskoboynik is the Argentinian author of The Memory We Could Be: Overcoming Fear to Create Our Ecological Future and amongst the most fascinating thinkers I know. He's also a good friend. We spoke about reckoning with past ecological violence of, bio-cultural memory and our collective ecological heritage. Basically, why we need to mix futurism and ancestrality. Also: storytelling, trauma, healing, climate change and The Office and Gilmour Girls, because why not. ---- EARTHQUAKE DONATION LINKS: The White Helmets whitehelmets.org/en/ The Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) Foundation sams-usa.net Huquqyat https://www.huquqyat.org/ Molham Team Molhamteam.com Kurdish Red Crescent heyvasoruk.org ---- Book recommendations: Ideas to Postpone the End of the World by Ailton Krenak Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals Emergent Strategy Series by Alexis Pauline Gumbs How the World Breaks: Life in Catastrophe's Path, from the Caribbean to Siberia by Stan Cox and Paul Cox Also, the poetry of Joy Harjo, Ilya Kaminsky, Victoria Chang, Dunya Mikhail and Vito Apushana. ---- You can support The Fire These Times on patreon.com/firethesetimes with a monthly or yearly donation and get a lot of perks including early access, exclusive videos, monthly hangouts, access to the book club, merch and more. Want to help our with transcribing episodes? Check out this link. ---- You can also follow updates on Mastodon | Twitter | Instagram | TikTok | Website & Mailing List Joey Ayoub can be found on Mastodon | Twitter | Instagram | Website The newsletter is available on Substack ---- Host: Joey Ayoub Producer: Joey Ayoub Music: Rap and Revenge Main theme design: Wenyi Geng Sound editor: Ibrahim Youssef Episode design: Joey Ayoub

This is an episode with writer and filmmaker Shane Burley, editor of the must-read book published by AK Press: "No Pasarán! Antifascist Dispatches from a World in Crisis." It is an anthology of antifascist writing that takes up the fight against white supremacy and the far-right from multiple angles. From the history of antifascism to today's movement to identify,  deplatform, and confront the right, and the ways an insurgent fascism is  growing within capitalist democracies, a myriad of voices come together  to shape the new face of antifascism in a moment of social and  political flux. Burley is also the author of a number of books incl. Why We Fight: Essays on Fascism, Resistance, and Surviving the Apocalypse (AK Press, 2021) and Fascism Today: What It Is and How to End It (AK Press, 2017). No Pasarán also features Leila Al-Shami and Shon Meckfessel, authors of a chapter on the links between White supremacists and tge Assad regime. Both Leila (previous guest of the pod) and Shon are upcoming guests on the topic. ---- Recommended Books: Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement from the Margins to the Mainstream by Leonard Zeskind Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America by Kathleen Belew As Black as Resistance: Finding the Conditions for Liberation by Zoé Samudzi & William C. Anderson ---- You can support The Fire These Times on patreon.com/firethesetimes with a monthly or yearly donation and get a lot of perks including early access, exclusive videos, monthly hangouts, access to the book club, merch and more. Want to help our with transcribing episodes? Check out this link. ---- You can also follow updates on Mastodon | Twitter | Instagram | TikTok | Website & Mailing List Joey Ayoub can be found on Mastodon | Twitter | Instagram | Website The newsletter is available on Substack ---- Host: Joey Ayoub Producer: Joey Ayoub Music: Rap and Revenge Main theme design: Wenyi Geng Episode design: Joey Ayoub

Jessie Gender is a known YouTuber and commentator who deals with the nuance in the nerdy, focusing on LGBTQ issues (especially the transgender community), women, nonbinary and autistic people as well as other social and political issues through geek topics. Both Jessie and Joey also happen to be Trekkies on the autism spectrum which gave this conversation an added layer of complexity. -- Book Recs: Second Self by Uma McCormack Star Trek Lower Decks Star Wars Andor -- You can support The Fire These Times on patreon.com/firethesetimes with a monthly or yearly donation and get a lot of perks including early access, exclusive videos, monthly hangouts, access to the book club, merch and more. You can also follow The Fire These Times on Mastodon | Twitter | Instagram | TikTok | Website & Mailing List Joey Ayoub can be found on Mastodon | Twitter | Instagram | Website The newsletter is available on Substack -- Host: Joey Ayoub   Producer: Joey Ayoub   Music: Rap and Revenge Main theme design: Wenyi Geng Sound editor: Joey Ayoub Episode design: Joey Ayoub

Luka Dowell joins Joey Ayoub to talk about Hauntings, Futurisms, and Solarpunk. Luka is the host of the podcast Solarpunk Now! which I highly recommend. They are passionate about theory, politics, art, science/tech,  sustainability. Topics that interest them include ecology, psychology, economics, digital media and online communities, and our future. -- Recs: Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power by Byung-Chul Han Family Values: Between Neoliberalism and the New Social Conservatism by Melinda Cooper The New Way of the World: On Neoliberal Society by Pierre Dardot & Christian Laval -- You can support The Fire These Times on patreon.com/firethesetimes with a monthly or yearly donation and get a lot of perks including early access, exclusive videos, monthly hangouts, access to the book club, merch and more. You can also follow The Fire These Times on Mastodon | Twitter | Instagram | TikTok | Website & Mailing List  Joey Ayoub can be found on Mastodon | Twitter | Instagram | Website  The newsletter is available on Substack -- Host: Joey Ayoub Producer: Joey Ayoub Music: Rap and Revenge Main theme design: Wenyi Geng Episode design: Joey Ayoub

This is a conversation with teacher, linguist, and writer Rob Cameron about Solarpunk and Afro-Solarpunk.    -- Book Recs:  Multispecies Cities: Solarpunk Urban Futures edited by Christoph  Rupprecht, Deborah Cleland, Norie Tamura, Rajat Chaudhuri and Sarena  Ulibarri  Cities of Light: A Collection of Solar edited by Joey Eschrich and  Clark A. Miller   Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future edited by Ed Finn and Kathryn Cramer  Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction edited by Sheree Renée  Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki and Zelda Knight    Humankind by Rutger Bregman    -- You can support The Fire These Times on patreon.com/firethesetimes with a monthly or yearly donation and get a lot of perks including early access, exclusive videos, monthly hangouts, access to the book club, merch and more. You can also follow The Fire These Times on Mastodon | Twitter | Instagram | TikTok | Website & Mailing List Joey Ayoub can be found on Mastodon | Twitter | Instagram | Website The newsletter is available on Substack -- Host: Joey Ayoub Producer: Joey Ayoub Music: Rap and Revenge Main theme design: Wenyi Geng Episode design: Joey Ayoub