The Fire These Times

This is a conversation with Zhongjin Li and Eli Friedman, co-editors of the book 'China on Strike: Narratives of Workers' Resistance', with the original Chinese edition edited by Hao Ren. Through the story of Labor insurgency in China we go into the world of narratives and ideas. We explore the contrast between a government's projected image, and its reality. My guests do an excellent job at exploring what is essentially impossible to do in an hour or so: modern China, or at least parts of it. 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! This will be the last original episode of 2020. There will be one episode released next week which will be the edited version of the recent book I contributed to - 'A Region in Revolt: Mapping the Recent Uprisings in North Africa and West Asia' - and which examines the recent uprisings in Sudan, Algeria, Lebanon, Iran and Iraq. I have a lot of exciting things planned for 2021 folks so stay tuned. If you enjoy this podcast please do share it with your friends and family, especially that annoying uncle of yours. See you in 2021. 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. Key words: China; Labor; Capitalism; Chinese Communist Party; International Solidarity; Socialism; Strikes; Hong Kong; Leftwing politics; Working Class 

This is a conversation with Martin Parker and Thomas Swann, co-editors of the book "Anarchism, Organization and Management: Critical Perspectives for Students". Now I know what you must be thinking: anarchism and management? Aren't they contradictory?  Often, yes, but not necessarily, and this conversation will try and argue that they can work very well together. In fact, my guests and I argued that engaging with both anarchism and management in a critical way may just be what we need today. So if you're a business or management student or know someone who is one, I'd be curious to hear from you. You don't have to be one though (I'm not one either). "This book turns ideas [about how business should be done] on their head, asking awkward questions about authority, technology and markets and demanding that its readers think hard about whether they want to reproduce those ideas too." 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. key words: entrepreneurship, business, capitalism, organization, critical management, anarchism, critical theory

This is a conversation with Jonathan McIntosh who runs the Pop Culture Detective Agency,  the video essay series focusing on the intersections of masculinity,  politics and entertainment. He was also a producer and co-writer on the Tropes vs. Women in Video Games YouTube video series created and hosted by Anita Sarkeesian. You don't have to watch his videos before listening to this  episode, but I think you'll find it more informative if you do so first. At least the ones referenced below. As the title suggests, this was largely a conversation about masculinity  in pop culture. We spoke about the Big Bang Theory, Steven Universe, the character of Newt Scamander (of the Fantastic Beasts film series, but only the 1st movie), Stranger Things and Star Wars. So, you know,  usual spoilers alert. We also spoke about one of the most dangerous fictional characters of recent years: Donald Trump. Although Jonathan's work focuses on Western and especially American  movies and TV series, the episode is structured to highlight common  tropes that are present throughout the world. After all, it is quite  difficult to ignore the influence of Hollywood on movies throughout the  world, not that other film industries are necessarily better or worse when it comes to unhealthy masculinity tropes. 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.

I spoke with Francesco Saverio Leopardi of Ca'Foscari University of Venice about his recently released book 'The Palestinian Left and Its Decline: Loyal Opposition'. We go through the recent history of the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or PFLP, from 1982 to 2007. We go through its complicated role(s) in various Arab countries and even more complicated relationship with other Palestinian groups, especially the PLO, as well as some lessons to draw from this group's experience. As with all conversations I have, this one was intended to be broader than its specific topic. Hopefully by the end of this episode you will have a basic understanding of: the PFLP's history, tensions within the Arab left, the role of Israel and the Assad regime in destroying parts of the Arab left, and even a brief comparative analysis of the Egyptian communist movement and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). I even made a loose comparison between the experience of the PFLP and that of the Free Syrian Army just to challenge my guest, include a more comparative analysis in our conversation, and to let him expand on what he called 'the opposition-integration dilemma'. 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. f 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 a conversation with Dr Mona Harb,  Professor of Urban Studies and Politics at the Department of  Architecture and Design at the American University of Beirut. She also  works at Beirut Urban Lab which is: "a collaborative and interdisciplinary research space. The Lab produces  scholarship on urbanization by documenting and analyzing ongoing  transformation processes in Lebanon and its region's natural and built  environments. It intervenes as an interlocutor and contributor to  academic debates about historical and contemporary urbanization from its  position in the Global South." Mona recently wrote reflections on the blast on Jadaliyya - Quick Thoughts: Mona Harb on the Aftermath of the Beirut Explosion - which led to this invitation on The Fire These Times.  We use the blast as the anchor for our conversation. We spoke about the  roles of dominant political figures/parties - especially Hariri Sr+Jr  and Hezbollah in this case - in privatisation processes which have led  to a highly disfigured city even before the August explosion. We spoke  about the difficulties of trying to love Beirut and how it can often  feel like it is too much to handle. In short, we spoke about our very modern experience affecting not just our country but places around the world. Indeed, although Beirut and Lebanon-focused, this is a conversation that  applies to multiple cities around the world that are facing the  challenges of human-caused destruction (the blast, climate change, urban  inequalities, and so on) while also navigating the limitations imposed  by nation states under the still-dominant (despite everything)  neoliberal framework. More on the blog post at thefirethisti.me  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. f 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 Beirut Urban Lab.

This is an unusual episode in that it's just me reflecting on the first 50 episodes that were released on The Fire These Times since March 14th 2020. I also speak about the projects I'm working on and which are made possible by your support. The projects: The Fire These Times: the podcast named after the James  Baldwin book ‘The Fire Next Time’. Its overarching philosophy is exploring ways to tackle the 21st century. Episodes so far have includes conversations on the 2019 Uprising in Lebanon, fascism in Greece,  Europe's 'refugee crisis', Brexit, Hong Kong, the Syrian revolution, China's concentration camps in Xinjiang, disinformation campaigns in the West, patriarchy, Ethiopia, the Jewish Bund, Venezuela and LGBTQ rights in the Arab world. Hummus For Thought: the Lebanon-oriented blog launched during the Arab Spring in 2011 and which is now two things: a monthly newsletter featuring reflections and recommendations (subscribe here) and an upcoming series of monthly and bilingual (English/Arabic) conversations on Lebanon with people who live in Lebanon or who have left Lebanon. You can read the announcement here. LebaneseCinema.com: upcoming website dedicated to resources on Lebanese Cinema as well as regional cinema (Palestinian, Israeli, Syrian, Turkish, Iraqi and Iranian). Ecolere (no website yet): upcoming bilingual (English/Arabic) website dedicated to discussing the climate emergency, our digital lives, and everything in between. Co-created with my friend Christophe Maroun.

This is a conversation with Loukas Stamellos. He's a member of the Greek grassroots media organisation OmniaTV and of the "Golden Dawn Watch"  initiative. Loukas and I spoke about Golden Dawn more generally, not just the trial that finally concluded that they are a criminal organisation but about  fascism in Greece and in Europe more broadly. He was really able to link Golden Dawn's fascism with wider trends such as nationalism and  xenophobia. The episode is available on the usual podcasting apps as of Sunday 18th 2020: Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Breaker, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Radio Public, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Castro and RSS. If it is not available wherever you get your podcasts, please drop me a message! You can view this episode as an informal second part to my previous conversation with Ghias Al Jundi,  a British-Syrian activist, on the recent fires in Greece's Moria camp  for refugees and migrants. That being said, both episodes are also  intended to stand on their own. In terms of additional links, I have used two previous podcast episodes  as part of my research for this episode. The first is a Guardian long  read based on an article written by Daniel Trilling for the publication. The audio version is here. The second is an interview by the podcast Radikaal with Daphne Halikiopoulo,  Professor in the Department of Political Science and International  Relations at the University of Reading in England. The link is here. Photo designed by Vincent Vaury for the documentary 'Golden Dawn: A Personal Affairs'. Reused and modified with permission.

This is a conversation with Syrian-British human rights activist Ghias Al Jundi about the recent fires at the Moria camp for refugees and migrants in Greece. The fires that burned through the camp left thousands houseless, turning a situation that was already described as a living hell into something even worse. Please check the links below for readings on that. Ghias has been going frequently to Greece to help refugees who make the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean Sea, a reality that is the  result of the European Union's decision to demonise migration and asylum. The EU has made it impossible for refugees to reach Fortress  Europe via the land. [For more on that you can listen to episode 35 (July 6, 2020) on the deadly 'Balkan Route', with Jack Sapoch, coordinator of No Name Kitchen‘s border violence reporting, itself part of the Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN).] He also knows very well what it means to leave one's home as he himself fled Syria in 1998 after surviving torture in Hafez Assad's dungeons.  This direct connection is something that I think is reflected in our own  conversation. As he told me in the episode, seeing migrants and  refugees try and reach Europe's shores felt like Syria was coming to him this time. If you'd like to support Ghias' fundraising effort to help those displaced by the Moria fires, you can do so at this link. As for articles related to the Moria fires, you'll find them on the associated blogpost on thefirethisti.me 

This is a conversation with Dr Peter Kalmus.  He's a climate scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, and an activist  struggling, like so many of us, with the overwhelming presence of the  climate emergency. You can follow the podcast on Twitter @FireTheseTimes. You can follow the other project, Hummus For Thought, on Twitter @LebInterviews. 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 cannot donate you can still help by reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts or 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. If it is not available wherever you get your podcasts, please drop me a message! Music by Tarabeat. Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash.

This is a conversation with Lara Bitar, the founding editor of The Public Source, a Beirut-based independent media organization  "dedicated to reporting on socioeconomic and environmental crises afflicting Lebanon since the onset of neoliberal governance in the 90s, and providing political commentary on events unfolding since  October 17." We spoke about the importance of independent and critical media in Lebanon today and about the aftermath of 'this brief moment of euphoria that a lot of people experienced during the October 17' uprising, and particularly since the August 4th explosion in Beirut. You can follow the podcast on Twitter @FireTheseTimes. You can follow the other project, Hummus For Thought, on Twitter @LebInterviews. 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 cannot donate you can still help by reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts or 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. If it is not available wherever you get your podcasts, please drop me a message! Music by Tarabeat. Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash.