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The Fire These Times

The Fire These Times

By: Elia Ayoub
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A podcast by UK-based Lebanese-Palestinian writer, journalist, researcher and historian Elia Ayoub. Since March 2020. To support: https://www.patreon.com/thefirethesetimes “The Fire These Times is a place where we tell our hardest truths, and find one another" - Naomi Klein. Art by therosaartist.com742921 Political Science Politics & Government
Episodes
  • Arab Parenthood and Genocide (E226)

    Arab Parenthood and Genocide (E226)
    Oct 5 2026
    Last time, I sat down with Shui-yin Sharon Yam to talk about ambiguous loss, diasporic parenting and grieving the what-ifs. Thank you to those who sent me nice feedback about that one. As you might imagine, it wasn’t an easy one to record, but it felt necessary after I realised that we all experience ambiguous loss in one way or another. Today I’m talking to Heba Gowayed. She is a writer and associate professor of sociology at CUNY Hunter College and Graduate Center. Her research and writing centers the lives of people who migrate across borders and the unequal and often violent institutions they face. I wanted to have Heba on to talk about a piece she had written for In These Times called “On Parenthood and Genocide,” which was republished in the book “We Grow the World Together: Parenting Toward Abolition” edited by Maya Schenwar and Kim Wilson. Heba, like me, has a kid who is roughly the same age as mine. We’re both raising them in mixed Arab/non-Arab families in the diaspora in the West, and we have both been deeply impacted by what it all means in the context of a genocide against our people, especially as both of our kids were born end of 2023. In fact, this episode will be out not long before the third anniversary of the ongoing Western-backed Israeli genocide against Palestinians, which itself started about a week before my own kid was born. So it’s all been a bit much to be honest with you, but I hope you’ll find something in this episode regardless of whether you’re a parent or not. The monstrosities unleashed by the Israelis have contributed to an acceleration of the decline of whatever is left of international human rights, a decline that authoritarian governments everywhere are enjoying. I believe that part of how we fight back is through understanding what is actually happening, and the stories we talk about here - mine and Heba’s - are only a part of a much wider trend that is affecting millions.Admin: You can still register for my November class, the 5th and last class on modern Lebanese history and politics before I take a long break from it all. If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about Lebanon and why it matters so much to today’s geopolitical nightmare, I think you’ll benefit from taking this class. I have a lot - and I do mean a lot - of episodes that I’m recording in the coming weeks. If you choose to support this podcast on Patreon.com/thefirethesetimes, you’ll get early access to al of them. If you have an iPhone, I recommend subscribing from a browser instead of your phone as it’s less expensive for you to do so because Apple thought it wasn’t screwing over creators enough.. You’ll also get exclusive access to the video episodes, our monthly hangout as well as other perks such as the upcoming Discord channel, discounts on upcoming merch, that sort of thing. I’m also working on two separate mini-series that will be released to Patreon supporters all at once, with the public getting them once a month as of 2027. So if this is something you can afford, please consider giving it a shot with a yearly donation. If it doesn’t work out for you after a year’s time, you can stay on the Patreon for free (just message me then) and not lose access to anything. I only ask for an initial year-long commitment, which is cheaper for you than paying monthly anyway. Masterclass on Modern Lebanon: Registration is now open for November 2026.Newsletter: Subscribe to HauntologiesSocial Media: I'm on Bluesky and Instagram.Contact: To collaborate, reach out on ayoub@thefirethesetimes.com / Signal @ Ayoub.02Credit: Elia Ayoub (host, sound editor, episode design), the rosa artist (TFTT theme design, 2026-), Rap and Revenge⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (Music), ⁠⁠⁠Wenyi Geng⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (TFTT theme design),⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Hisham Rifai⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (FTP theme design),⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Molly Crabapple⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (FTP team profile pics) and ⁠⁠⁠Antidote Zine⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (Transcriptions).
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    1 hr and 13 mins
  • Surviving Sisi's Egypt w/ Abdelrahman ElGendy (E227)

    Surviving Sisi's Egypt w/ Abdelrahman ElGendy (E227)
    Oct 12 2026
    One thing you’ll get from this episode - and from reading Abdelrahman’s memoir Huna: A Memoir of Revolution, Prison, and Becoming recounting his six years in Sisi’s nightmarish prisons in Egypt - is a lot of empathy, not just towards what he went through, what others like Ayman Moussa - who was 19 when arrested in 2013 and is still serving a 15-year sentence - are still going through, but the sense that Abdelrahman himself remains empathetic, and dare I say hopeful. I was really struck by not only how eloquent he is, but how he’s able to navigate extremely difficult topics that must still haunt him with dignity. You’ll see what I mean in this episode.This includes a reading of Huna by Abdelrahman himself.This is part of a two-parter on the Egyptian dictatorship led by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Check out Imprisoning a Revolution: Writings from Egypt's Incarcerated by Collective Antigone with a forward by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o.Abdelrahman's Recs:The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning & Black Study by Fred Moten and Stefano HarneyPoetics of Relation by Édouard GlissantFrom the Clinic to the Streets: Psychoanalysis for Revolutionary Futures by Lara SheehiAdmin: You can still register for my November class, the 5th and last class on modern Lebanese history and politics before I take a long break from it all. If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about Lebanon and why it matters so much to today’s geopolitical nightmare, I think you’ll benefit from taking this class. For non-Patreons, I wanna make the case for joining the Patreon of TFTT at Patreon.com/thefirethesetimesNot only do you get early access to everything I do as well as other perks such as the monthly hangouts and exclusive video interviews, but you only need to commit to the first year. It’s cheaper to subscribe on a yearly basis anyway, but I understand that not everyone can commit for longer than that. If that’s you, please know that you can continue being on the Patreon for free after that initial year. Just message me closer to the date and I’ll send you a free invite. That initial support is, I’m hoping, enough for me to make this project financially sustainable, and I’m grateful for the 200 or so listeners who currently support TFTT on Patreon. Just a note: If you have an iPhone, I recommend subscribing from a browser instead of your Patreon application as it’s less expensive for you to do so since Apple decided it can rip people off through the Patreon app.Newsletter: Subscribe to HauntologiesSocial Media: I'm on Bluesky and Instagram.Contact: To collaborate, reach out on ayoub@thefirethesetimes.com / Signal @ Ayoub.02Credit: Elia Ayoub (host, sound editor, episode design), israa' (host), the rosa artist (TFTT theme design, 2026-), Rap and Revenge⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (Music), ⁠⁠⁠Wenyi Geng⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (TFTT theme design, 2022-2026),⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Hisham Rifai⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (FTP theme design),⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Molly Crabapple⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (FTP team profile pics) and ⁠⁠⁠Antidote Zine⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (Transcriptions).
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    1 hr and 31 mins
  • Ambiguous Loss and Diasporic Parenting w/ Shui-yin Sharon Yam (E225)

    Ambiguous Loss and Diasporic Parenting w/ Shui-yin Sharon Yam (E225)
    Sep 28 2026
    Over the past few years, I’ve had to reckon with loss and grief that felt unresolved, and perhaps unresolvable. It’s something we’re all dealing with in different ways. When loved ones die, we know they’re dead. Everything that comes with that remains horrible, even maybe unbearable, but there is no ambiguity over the fact that a loss happened. That’s not the case with ambiguous loss, the reality that every loss does not hold the promise of anything like resolutions. Take people who were forcibly disappeared in war. Their loved ones just don’t know for sure that they’re dead. There have been cases of people thought to be disappeared actually coming back from the dead, as it were. When the Assad regime fell nearly 2 years ago, there were some Lebanese prisoners released that were ostensibly missing since the 80s. Loved ones of those disappeared just don’t know, and many end up expressing a sense of paralysis, as it time was frozen the day they disappeared, and never unfroze. Linear time stops making much sense. Has a year passed since the ‘death’? What if they’re still alive? Can one even live with that, or is one stuck. Ambiguous loss can also be more ‘mundane’, for lack of a better term. I’ve moved a lot these past few years. Ever since I left Lebanon in 2015, I’ve moved places and countries many times. Each move brings with it good and bad, and the bad can be a sense of loss that is both permanent and unsettled. In that, ambiguous loss is as universal as it gets. We just don’t usually have the terminology to understand it better. So I had Shui-yin Sharon Yam on to talk about ambiguous loss. She is Professor of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies, and a faculty affiliate of Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Kentucky. This was actually her suggestion. Yam is a returning guest of TFTT. She was on in 2022 to talk about “Untellable Stories, Reproductive Justice & Complicating Acts of Advocacy” and before that in 2020 to talk about “Hong Kong, Disappearances and the Emotional Cost of Disinformation.”Sharon's Recommendations:Past Lives (Movie)Wayward Lives by Saidiya HartmanAll Fours by Miranda JulyAdmin: I have a lot of episodes that I’m recording in the coming weeks. If you choose to support this podcast on Patreon.com/thefirethesetimes, you’ll get early access to all of them. You’ll also get exclusive access to the video episodes, our monthly hangout as well as other perks such as the upcoming Discord channel, discounts on upcoming merch, that sort of thing. I’m also working on two separate mini-series that will be released to Patreon supporters all at once, with the public getting them once a month as of 2027. So if this is something you can afford, please consider giving it a shot with a yearly donation. If it doesn’t work out for you after a year’s time, you can stay on the Patreon for free (just message me then) and not lose access to anything. I only ask for an initial year-long commitment, which is cheaper for you than paying monthly anyway. Masterclass on Modern Lebanon: Registration is now open for November 2026.Newsletter: Subscribe to HauntologiesSocial Media: I'm on Bluesky and Instagram.Contact: To collaborate, reach out on ayoub@thefirethesetimes.com / Signal @ Ayoub.02Credit: Elia Ayoub (host, sound editor, episode design), the rosa artist (TFTT theme design, 2026-), Rap and Revenge⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (Music), ⁠⁠⁠Wenyi Geng⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (TFTT theme design),⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Hisham Rifai⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (FTP theme design),⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Molly Crabapple⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (FTP team profile pics) and ⁠⁠⁠Antidote Zine⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (Transcriptions).
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    1 hr and 28 mins
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