

The Fire These Times
Elia Ayoub
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
It is a part of the From The Periphery Media Collective. To support: https://www.patreon.com/fromtheperiphery
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jan 6, 2023 • 1h 31min
121/ Solarpunk and Post-Capitalist Desires w/ HydroponicTrash
And we're back!
This is a conversation with hacker, gardener and writer Andre, aka HydroponicTrash (on Twitter, TikTok and Mastodon). You can also find Andre on Substack at AnarchoSolarpunk. The title is taken from one of Andre's essays.
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Book Recs:
Walkaway by Cory Doctorow
The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow
Lo—TEK, Design by Radical Indigenism Julia Watson
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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
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Host: Joey Ayoub
Producer: Joey Ayoub
Music: Rap and Revenge
Main theme design: Wenyi Geng
Episode design: Joey Ayoub

Dec 22, 2022 • 1h 52min
Special: How to Make Football Radical, a 2022 FIFA World Cup Retrospective w/ Musa Okwonga, Justin Salhani and Fabien Goa
In this special episode of The Fire These Times, Stadio co-host Musa Okwonga, football and MENA journalist Justin Salhani and human rights researcher Fabien Goa join Joey Ayoub to talk about the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Also, check out Stadio!
Happy winter solstice, Hanukkah and Christmas
Book Recs:
Justin Salhani: Soccer Empire: The World Cup and the Future of France by Laurent Dubois
Musa Okwonga: The Ball is Round: A Global History of Soccer by David Goldblatt
Fabien Goa: The Turbulance of Migration by Nikos Papastergiadis
You can support The Fire These Times on Patreon @ patreon.com/firethesetimes with a monthly or yearly donation.
You can also find it on
Twitter @firethesetimes
Instagram @firethesetimes
TikTok @thefirethesetimes.
Joey Ayoub can be found on
Twitter @joeyayoub
Instagram @joeyayoub91
Mastodon @ https://kolektiva.social/web/@ayoub
The newsletter is available on Subtack @ thefirethesetimes.substack.com
Music by RapNRevenge, Episode design by Joey Ayoub, Podcast design by Wenyi Geng

Aug 5, 2022 • 1h 57min
120/ Russian Imperialism, Cynical Discourse and Life Amidst War w/ Mariam Naiem & Romeo Kokriatski
This is a conversation with Ukrainian researcher Mariam Naiem and journalist Romeo Kokriatsk. We spoke about the ongoing situation in Ukraine, the history of Russian imperialism, cynical online discourse and life amidst war.
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
The Fire These Times will be back in October!
Recommended Books:
Imperial Knowledge: Russian Literature and Colonialism by Ewa M. Thompson
Katerina by Taras Shevchenko
I'm Not Stiller by Max Frisch
--
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

Jul 29, 2022 • 1h 7min
119/ Lessons on the Path to Radicalization w/ Andrew Sage & Emmi Bevensee
This is a conversation with Andrew Sage of the Andrewism YouTube channel and Emmi Bevensee about our respective journeys towards political radicalization.
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:
Emmi:
Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots
The Private Eye by Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martín, Muntsa Vicente
Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
Andrew:
Anarchy Works by Peter Gelderloos
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire
Prefigurative Politics: Building Tomorrow Today by Paul Raekstad and Sofa Saio Gradin

Jul 22, 2022 • 1h 31min
118/ Bosnia, False Histories and Fact-Free Politics w/ Edin Hajdarpašić
This is a conversation with Edin Hajdarpašić, associate professor of history at Loyola University Chicago. He wrote an essay called "What Use Is Fact-Checking Against Fact-Free Politics?" which was the basis for our conversation.
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:
Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History by Michel-Rolph Trouillot
Bosnian Studies: Perspectives from an Emerging Field by Dzeneta Karabegovic and Adna Karamehic-Oates
Beekeeping in the End Times by Larisa Jasarevic

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