
The Fire These Times
The Fire These Times is a podcast by Lebanese writer and researcher Elia Ayoub and friends connecting academics, writers, artists and activists from around the world to “build the new in the shell of the old.”
It is a part of the From The Periphery Media Collective. To support: https://www.patreon.com/fromtheperiphery
Latest episodes

Jul 15, 2022 • 1h 23min
117/ The Impossible Cities: Hong Kong & Beirut w/ Karen Cheung
This is a conversation with Karen Cheung, author of the book "The Impossible City: A Hong Kong Memoir." As you'll hear, we ended up finding a lot of things in common between our two cities and experiences.
You can support The Fire These Times on Patreon with a monthly or yearly donation. You can also find it on Twitter @firethesetimes, Instagram @firethesetimes and TikTok @thefirethesetimes. Joey Ayoub can be found on Twitter @joeyayoub and Instagram @joeyayoub91. The newsletter is available on Subtack @ thefirethesetimes.substack.com
Recommended Books:
Hong Kong Without Us:A People's Poetry edited by The Bauhinia Project
Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon
Either/Or by Elif Batuman

Jul 8, 2022 • 1h 26min
116/ Climate Futures and Post-Normal Fiction w/ Andrew Dana Hudson
This is a conversation with Andrew Dana Hudson, a speculative fiction writer, sustainability researcher, editor and futurist and the author of "Our Shared Storm: A Novel of Five Climate Futures."
It's also his second time on The Fire These Times.
Andrew also has a newsletter called solarshades.club which publishes every other Sunday with updates on his work, process, and material reality.
You can support The Fire These Times on Patreon with a monthly or yearly donation. You can also find it on Twitter @firethesetimes, Instagram @firethesetimes and TikTok @thefirethesetimes. Joey Ayoub can be found on Twitter @joeyayoub and Instagram @joeyayoub91. The newsletter is available on Subtack @ thefirethesetimes.substack.com
Recommended Books:
The Ministry Of The Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
How to Blow Up a Pipeline by Andreas Maln
Phase Change: Imagining Energy Futures edited by Matthew Chrulew
Kim Stanley Robinson's review of Our Shared Storm: "Hudson has found a way to strike together the various facets of our climate future, sparking stories that are by turns ingenious, energetic, provicative, and soulful"

Jul 1, 2022 • 1h 6min
115/ Seeking Refuge on the World's Deadliest Migration Route w/ Sally Hayden
This is a conversation with Sally Hayden, an Irish journalist and writer. A foreign correspondent, she has reported from Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda and Rwanda. Her book My Fourth Time, We Drowned, an investigation into the so-called migrant crisis in Europe, was published in 2022.
You can support The Fire These Times on Patreon with a monthly or yearly donation. You can also find it on Twitter @firethesetimes, Instagram @firethesetimes and TikTok @thefirethesetimes. Joey Ayoub can be found on Twitter @joeyayoub and Instagram @joeyayoub91. The newsletter is available on Subtack @ thefirethesetimes.substack.com
Recommended Books:
A Stricken Field: A Novel by Martha Gellhorn
What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad
The Volunteer: One Man, an Underground Army, and the Secret Mission to Destroy Auschwitz by Jack Fairweather
Sally Rooney said this about the book: “The most important work of contemporary reporting I have ever read. Every citizen of the European Union has not only a right, but also a responsibility, to learn about the realities described in this book. I hope that Sally Hayden’s work can help to begin a radically new and overdue discussion about Europe’s approach to migration and borders.”

Jun 24, 2022 • 1h 12min
114/ Why Nostalgia in the Periphery Feels Different w/ Efe Levent x Mangal Media
This is a conversation with Efe Levent, editor-in-chief at Mangal Media about their recent 'Nostalgia in the Periphery' project.
You can support The Fire These Times on Patreon with a monthly or yearly donation. You can also find it on Twitter @firethesetimes, Instagram @firethesetimes and TikTok @thefirethesetimes. Joey Ayoub can be found on Twitter @joeyayoub and Instagram @joeyayoub91. The newsletter is available on Subtack @ thefirethesetimes.substack.com
Recommended Books:
Nostalgia in the Periphery by Mangal Media
The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara
The Time Regulation Institute by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar
Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

Jun 17, 2022 • 1h 28min
113/ Taiwan's Wen Liu & Brian Hioe on Ukraine, Hong Kong & Tiananmen
This is a conversation with Wen Liu and Brian Hioe, authors of the piece "From Taiwan to Ukraine" on Spectre. This episode was co-hosted by Romeo Kokriatski, co-host of the podcast "Ukraine Without Hype."
You can support The Fire These Times on Patreon with a monthly or yearly donation. You can also find it on Twitter @firethesetimes, Instagram @firethesetimes and TikTok @thefirethesetimes. Joey Ayoub can be found on Twitter @joeyayoub and Instagram @joeyayoub91. The newsletter is available on Subtack @ thefirethesetimes.substack.com
Recommended Books:
Reorienting Hong Kong's Resistance Leftism, Decoloniality, and Internationalism, edited by Wen Liu, JN Chien, Christina Chung, Ellie Tse
The People's Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited by Louisa Lim
The Impossible City: A Hong Kong Memoir by Karen Cheung

Jun 10, 2022 • 1h 27min
112/ From Yarmouk to the World: On Syria, Palestine and Lebanon w/ Nidal Betare
Nidal Betare joins Joey Ayoub to talk about growing up in Yarmouk, being Palestinian-Syrian and the links between Syria, Palestine and Lebanon.
You can support The Fire These Times on Patreon with a monthly or yearly donation. You can also find it on Twitter @firethesetimes, Instagram @firethesetimes and TikTok @thefirethesetimes. Joey Ayoub can be found on Twitter @joeyayoub and Instagram @joeyayoub91. The newsletter is available on Subtack @ thefirethesetimes.substack.com
Recommended Books:
Samir Kassir's books:
ديمقراطية سوريا واستقلال لبنان: البحث عن ربيع دمشق، دار النهار، 2004
and
عسكر على مين؟: لبنان الجمهورية المفقودة، دار النهار، 2004
Serhy Yekelchyk: Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know

Jun 3, 2022 • 1h 23min
111/ What is Happening in Tigray? w/ Teklehaymanot Weldemichel
Stop #TigrayGenocide. Tigrayan academic Teklehaymanot Weldemichel joins Joey Ayoub to talk about what's been happening in Tigray.
You can support The Fire These Times on Patreon with a monthly or yearly donation. You can also find it on Twitter @firethesetimes, Instagram @firethesetimes and TikTok @thefirethesetimes. Joey Ayoub can be found on Twitter @joeyayoub and Instagram @joeyayoub91. The newsletter is available on Subtack @ thefirethesetimes.substack.com
Resources:
Omna Tigray
Tghat
HRW Report: “We Will Erase You from This Land”
Art by Tigray Art Collective.
Recommended Books:
George Orwell - Animal Farm
Hannah Arendt - The Origins of Totalitarianism
Roméo Dallaire - Shake Hands with the Devil

May 27, 2022 • 20min
Special: On Having a Kid in the Climate Apocalypse w/ Michael J. DeLuca
This is a special episode in which Michael J. DeLuca reads out an essay he wrote for Issue 2 of Reckoning entitled 'On Having a Kid in the Climate Apocalypse'. The episode includes an updated intro by Michael as well.
You can support The Fire These Times on Patreon with a monthly or yearly donation. You can also find it on Twitter @firethesetimes, Instagram @firethesetimes and TikTok @thefirethesetimes. Joey Ayoub can be found on Twitter @joeyayoub and Instagram @joeyayoub91. The newsletter is available on Subtack @ thefirethesetimes.substack.com
Photo by Oxana Lyashenko on Unsplash

May 20, 2022 • 1h 7min
110/ Climate Narratives that Go Beyond the Apocalypse w/ Alyssa Hull
This is a conversation with Alyssa Hull who splits her time between teaching high school biology and environmental science and writing speculative fiction.
We spoke about what it's like to talk to high school students about climate change, the role of fiction like Solarpunk and how to improve climate communication. The article she wrote that we reference is called 'Hopepunk and Solarpunk: On Climate Narratives That Go Beyond the Apocalypse' for LitHub.
You can support The Fire These Times on Patreon with a monthly or yearly donation. You can also find it on Twitter @firethesetimes, Instagram @firethesetimes and TikTok @thefirethesetimes. Joey Ayoub can be found on Twitter @joeyayoub and Instagram @joeyayoub91. The newsletter is available on Subtack @ thefirethesetimes.substack.com
Games mentioned:
Mutazione
Cloud Gardens
Common'Hood
Recommended Books:
Parable of the Sower - Octavia Butler
The Nutmeg's Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis - Amitav Gosh
Underland: A Deep Time Journey - Robert Macfarlane

May 13, 2022 • 1h 42min
109/ The Link Between Pro-Palestine Activism, Anti-Authoritarianism and Democracy in the Arab World w/ Dana El-Kurd
This is a conversation with Dana El-Kurd, her second time on the podcast. We spoke about a paper that she wrote entitled "Gateway to dissent: the role of pro-Palestine activism in opposition to authoritarianism."
We primarily spoke about the role of pro-Palestine activism in pro-democracy movements in the Arab world (with examples from Qatar, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Bahrain, the UAE and Saudi Arabia) and also about how pro-Palestine discourse is used to whitewash authoritarianism, especially in the West.
You can support The Fire These Times on Patreon with a monthly or yearly donation. You can also find it on Twitter @firethesetimes, Instagram @firethesetimes and TikTok @thefirethesetimes. Joey Ayoub can be found on Twitter @joeyayoub and Instagram @joeyayoub91. The newsletter is available on Subtack @ thefirethesetimes.substack.com
Recommended Books:
عزمي بشارة - المجتمع المدني
Joyful Militancy: Building Thriving Resistance in Toxic Times (Anarchist Interventions) by Carla Bergman and Nick Montgomery
Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique by Sa'ed Atshan
Contested Modernity: Sectarianism, Nationalism, and Colonialism in Bahrain by Omar Al-Shehabi