The Fire These Times

Today we'll be talking to Anne Kretzschmar. She’s a coordinator with the Stay Grounded network which works on a global level to reduce air traffic and build a climate-just transport system. They recently published a paper entitled  ‘A Rapid and Just Transition of Aviation: Shifting towards climate-just mobility‘ which was a big part of our conversation. Topics discussed: Social and environmental costs of airport projects The problem behind ‘carbon offsetting’ Looking for just alternatives Tackling tax exemption for aviation How flying is already unjust The problem of frequent flyers Implementing actual limits (frequent flyer levee) Europe’s lack of international booking for trains Trains can also be a problem (example of Maya Train project in Mexico) Wider question of asking what kind of mobility do we need and wand and how can we distribute it in a just way Taking the topic of jobs and labor seriously Impact of COVID-19 on aviation and what might come next Degrowth Change by Design or by Disaster Green New Deal for Gatwick How ‘bailouts’ rarely actually support those most impacted by industry losses Alternative tourisms The importance of internationality and the centrality of environmental justice Supporting critical aviator workers Airport-related Injustice and Resistance map Recommended Books: Vision on Fire: Emma Goldman on the Spanish Revolution Re:Imagining Change: How to Use Story-based Strategy to Win Campaigns, Build Movements, and Change the World by Patrick Reinsborough and Doyle Canning A Message From the Future II: The Years of Repair by Naomi Klein video by Molly Crabapple, Opal Tometi, Avi Lewis

Today we'll be talking to Musa Okwonga. Musa is a writer, broadcaster, poet, speaker, musician. author, sportswriter, broadcaster and commentator on current affairs. He's also the first person to come on the podcast three times (twice here and once in the previous 'Hummus For Thought' one). He most recently published a wonderful short book called "In The End, It Was All About Love" and published by Rough Trade Books, as well as "One of Them: An Eton College Memoir" published by Unbound. You can find this podcast on YouTube too. Topics discussed: Brexit Leaving home Racism The Holocaust Being a migrant European fascism Living in the future Visibility as racialised people Ethics of taking certain gigs as freelancers Going to Eton The importance of doing therapy The role of football Books Mentioned: The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,  Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation by Anna Malaika Tubbs Songs My Enemy Taught Me by Joelle Taylor Brown Baby: A Memoir of Race, Family and Home by Nikesh Shukla If you like what I do, please consider supporting this project with only 1$ a month on Patreon or on BuyMeACoffee.com. You can also do so directly on PayPal if you prefer. Patreon is for monthly, PayPal is for one-offs and BuyMeACoffee has both options. If you can’t donate anything, you can still support this project by sharing with your friends and leaving a review wherever you get your podcasts! Music by Tarabeat.

Today we'll be talking to Saleem Haddad. He is the author of Guapa, the director of Marco and a 2nd time guest on The Fire These Times. Topics discussed: What constitutes queer literature?; Muhammad Abdelnabi; Ocean Vuong;  James Baldwin; The Personal is Political; Pedro Lemebel; Israeli  pinkwashing; criticizing the so-called ‘gay international’ by Joseph  Massad; how ‘anti-imperialism’ and ‘post-colonialism’ is used by  authoritarian groups and regimes including Hezbollah and Assad;  Queerness in revolutionary settings (in the Arab-majority world);  Revolutionary feminism; LGBTQ liberation and the Syrian revolution;  being sensitive to authoritarian logic; queerness as a changing and  developing identity; understanding social constructs. Books/Works Mentioned: In the spider’s room: a novel by Muhammad Abdelnabi On earth we’re briefly gorgeous by Ocean Vuong Go tell it on the mountain by James Baldwin Manifesto (I speak for my difference) by Pedro Lemebel Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi Cleanness by Garth Greenwell The appointment by Katharina Volckmer PATREON Help me make more podcast episodes by supporting me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/firethesetimes PAYPAL If you'd rather make a one-time donation you can do it via PayPal: https://paypal.me/ibnbaldwin BLOG POST https://thefirethisti.me/2021/02/16/63-queerness-literature-and-revolution-with-saleem-haddad/ If you can’t donate anything, you can still support this project by  sharing with your friends and leaving a review wherever you get your podcasts! Music by Tarabeat.

This is a conversation with Kai Kuhnhenn and Linda Schneider. They recently co-wrote a really important and freely-available study exploring a Societal Transformation Scenario (STS) on how to limit global warming to 1.5°C. Topics Discussed: The importance of the study The problem with assuming economic growth in studying environmental impact The reliance on growth in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports Risks of geoengineering Degrowth for the Global North How the Societal Transformation Scenario (STS) differs from mainstream economics The problems with uncritical techno-optimism The risks of overshoot Why Recycle is the least important of the three Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle What about the Global South? Addressing economic justice What exactly does Net Zero mean? Keystone pipeline Exploring the possible Having hope Climate anxiety Recommended Books The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by adrienne maree brown The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck Corona, Climate, Chronic Emergency by Andreas Malm You can also make use of a really good FAQs section. If you like what I do, please consider supporting this project with only 1$ a month on Patreon or on BuyMeACoffee.com. You can also do so directly on PayPal if you prefer. Patreon is for monthly, PayPal is for one-offs and BuyMeACoffee has both options. If you can’t donate anything, you can still support this project by sharing with your friends and leaving a review wherever you get your podcasts! The Fire These Times is available on Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Breaker, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Radio Public, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Castro, Vurbl and RSS. Music by Tarabeat.

This is a conversation with Anand Gopal about his essay for Catalyst Journal entitled ‘The Arab Thermidor‘ in which he presents a class analysis of the Arab Spring. We spoke about a number of Arab-majority countries but with a focus on Syria. We briefly mentioned Afghanistan too.  PATREON Help me make more podcast episodes by supporting me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/firethesetimes   PAYPAL If you'd rather make a one-time donation you can do it via PayPal: https://paypal.me/ibnbaldwin   BLOG POST https://thefirethisti.me/2021/01/26/61-a-class-analysis-of-the-arab-spring-with-anand-gopal/   If you can’t donate anything, you can still support this project by sharing with your friends and leaving a review wherever you get your podcasts!   Music by Tarabeat.

Today we'll be talking to Emmi Bevensee again. They're a data journalist who utilizes a data storytelling approach to make complexity understandable. Topics discussed: Fifth Section: Eco-Fascism; the ‘Thanos’ tendency;  Climate grief; Climate anxiety; Climate denialism; Manipulative  algorithms; Network effects; Peer-to-peer technology; Gab; Alt-right  echo chambers; Machine learning vs human moderation; Leftism in the 21st  century; Anarchism; Post-leftism; Internationalism;  Anti-authoritarianism; Sixth Section: Mutualism; Currency; Capitalism;  Economic Coordination; Iroquois Longhouse Systems; Tragedy of the  commons (disproving it); Revealed vs Stated Preference; Reading  authoritarian literature; Prioritising and Strategising within activism. Seventh Section: Emotional Anarchism; Recommended books. PATREON Help me make more podcast episodes by supporting me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/firethesetimes PAYPAL If you'd rather make a one-time donation you can do it via PayPal: https://paypal.me/ibnbaldwin BLOG POST https://thefirethisti.me/2021/01/26/59-60-anti-fascism-and-the-future-of-complex-warfare/ If you can’t donate anything, you can still support this project by  sharing with your friends and leaving a review wherever you get your  podcasts!  Music by Tarabeat.

Today we'll be talking to Emmi Bevensee. They're a data journalist who utilizes a data storytelling approach to make complexity understandable. Topics discussed: First section: Complex Warfare; Disinformation Warfare; Drones; 3D-printed Guns; Houthis and Saudi Arabia; Asymmetrical  Warfare; Surveillance; Anti-authoritarian communities; Open-source intelligence  (OSINT); Katehon; Russia; Complexity Dynamics; Pandemics and Viral Spreads; Ukraine/Russia/Syria. Second section: 8kun; 8chan; 4chan; Gamergate; Gab; Parler; January 6 Coup Attempt; Jim Watkins; Ron Atkins; QAnon; Child  sexual abuse (not  in detail, just in the context of the Watkins family’s role in the online hate scene); Swarm tactics; BBC Eye investigations; Shabbiha; Mexican government, paramilitary troops and the Zapatistas; role of governments in conspiracies like QAnon; Kraken; Dominion Conspiracy; Trump; ‘Stop The Steal’; Cults; Hezbollah; “Q Clearance: Unmasking QAnon” podcast with Jake Hanrahan; Third Section: Syncretism; Fascist entryism; Alt-Imperialism; Legacy of 2003 Invasion of Iraq on Campism; Boomer socialism; Answer coalition;  Stop The War in the UK; Anti-semitism; Assadists; Hong Kong; Dugin and Duginism; Ajamu Baraka and the US Green Party; Code Pink. Fourth Section: Syria; Living on the Turkey-Syria Border; No Fly Zone;  Syrian Refugee Crisis; Lessons from the Syrian  experience for  anti-authoritarians; Syrian-related disinformation and authoritarianism; Libya; London Syria scene. PATREON Help me make more podcast episodes by supporting me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/firethesetimes   PAYPAL If you'd rather make a one-time donation you can do it via PayPal: https://paypal.me/ibnbaldwin   BLOG POST https://thefirethisti.me/2021/01/26/59-60-anti-fascism-and-the-future-of-complex-warfare/   If you can’t donate anything, you can still support this project by  sharing with your friends and leaving a review wherever you get your  podcasts!  Music by Tarabeat.

Today we’ll be talking to Rohini Hensman. She is an India-based Sri Lankan labor activist and feminist and an  independent scholar whose book “Indefensible: Democracy,  Counterrevolution, and the Rhetoric of Anti-Imperialism” I’ve reviewed some years ago, and which will be the topic of our conversation today. In that book, she argues that the apparent anti-imperialism of many  self-professed socialists amounts to explicit or implicit support for  totalitarianism, fascism, Islamist theocracy and, ironically enough,  imperialism. She goes through the examples of Syria, Iran, Iraq, Bosnia, Russia and Ukraine. This has been a concern of mind for a few years now and I wanted to  take this opportunity to bring it to a wider audience, so I invited  Rohini on to explore how such a supposedly noble political position –  anti-imperialism – can be so easily corrupted. You don’t have to identify with any -ism to find this topic  informative. You just need to be someone who opposes authoritarian  politics. If you like what I do, please consider supporting this project with only 1$ a month on Patreon or on BuyMeACoffee.com. You can also do so directly on PayPal if you prefer. Patreon is for monthly, PayPal is for one-offs and BuyMeACoffee has both options. If you can’t donate anything, you can still support this project by sharing with your friends and leaving a review wherever you get your podcasts! The Fire These Times is available on Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Breaker, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Radio Public, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Castro and RSS. Music by Tarabeat. Photo taken from ‘The Syrian People Know Their Way’

This is the first episode of the year and I wanted us to start this year by talking about silicon valley. Now, I know that this might sound weird, maybe out of context even, but I think we've reached a point where we need to come to terms with the fact that we're all living in a world heavily influenced by what we usually call Big Tech. So Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft, but we can also include other giants such as Twitter and, of course, subsidiaries of these giants, such as Instagram, YouTube, Whatsapp and so on. If you're listening from the US, you're likely very aware by now of what happens when authoritarian actors take advantage of certain designs on websites and apps like Facebook and YouTube. The fascists who stormed the Capitol on January 6th were undoubtedly radicalized on social media, with the help of Trump, himself addicted to Twitter, and the people around him. But this conversation focuses on another angle, and it goes beyond just social media. I spoke to Katy Cook about her book "the psychology of silicon valley: ethical threats and emotional unintelligence in the tech industry". This book offers a revealing look inside the mind of the world's most influential industry and how the identity, culture, myths and motivations of Big Tech are harming society. Katy walks us through the psychological landscape of Silicon Valley, including its leadership, ethical, and cultural problems - as well as what to do about them. Although US-focused at times, this is not a conversation about that country only. In fact, I bring up the UK and the Middle East as part of my own experience with the effects of social media and the tech giants.I will be having more of these conversations in the near future as I myself dig deeper into the philosophy and politics of Big Tech, and explore ways to approach the many-faceted challenges ahead. This episode was first published on Patreon.com/firethesetimes If you like what I do, please consider supporting this project with only 1$ a month on Patreon or on BuyMeACoffee.com. You can also do so directly on PayPal if you prefer. Patreon is for monthly, PayPal is for one-offs and BuyMeACoffee has both options. If you can’t donate anything, you can still support this project by sharing with your friends and leaving a review wherever you get your podcasts! The Fire These Times is available on Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Breaker, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Radio Public, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Castro and RSS. Music by Tarabeat.

This is the audio version of the virtual book launch of 'A region in revolt: Mapping the recent uprisings in North Africa and West Asia'. I took part in it alongside a number of the co-authors of the book. See you all in 2021. The Fire These Times will be back in mid-January. A wave of mass protest movements has spread across North Africa and West Asia, including Sudan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon and Iran. The mass protests have much in common, from opposing authoritarian regimes and worsening economic situations to demanding radical changes in social relations. Despite their similarities, each protest movement operates under different conditions that cannot be ignored. The specific historic, political and economic contexts of each country have determined who the key actors of the uprisings are and their location across old and new divides. This book elaborates on these similarities and differences to paint a clearer picture of these movements and draw out lessons to inform future struggles. Edited by Jade Saab, a Lebanese/Canadian Researcher at the University of Glasgow, the contributors include Azza Mustafa and Sara Abbas (on Sudan); Hamza Hamouchene and Selma Oumari (on Algeria); Zeidon Alkinani (on Iraq); Jade Saab and Joey Ayoub (on Lebanon); and Frieda Afary (on Iran). This episode was first published for monthly Patreon supporters. To become a monthly Patreon supporter, please click here. For other ways of supporting, including one-off donations, please click here. If you can’t donate anything, you can still support this project by sharing with your friends and leaving a review wherever you get your podcasts! The Fire These Times is available on Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Breaker, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Radio Public, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Castro and RSS. Music by Tarabeat. Tags: African, Decolonisation, Economic Conditions, Imperialism, Leftism, Political Freedom & Security, Political Science, Protest, Racism, Revolutions, Social Science