For episode 208, Elia and Dana talk about Zahrani Mamdani's victory and what it could mean for all of us.
What we got into, in no particular order:
Dana seeing Mamdani win as a Muslim-American (and Arab/Palestinian) who grew up in the aftermath of 9/11 / Mamdani’s Arabic-language campaign video (in Syrian Arabic - thank you Rama - except when talking to the cat, when he switched to Egyptian Arabic for some reason) and him saying أنا منكم واليكم at his victory speech
Elia seeing Mamdani win as an Arab who’s never been to New York City but still felt the impact of the War on Terror growing up in Lebanon
Both Elia and Dana being Mamdani’s age and how that’s f-ed up
How Mamdani navigated questions about Israel / why we need to be better at making the our opponents face their own contradictions instead of falling in their trap
The Far Right is not inevitable. It can be stopped. Billionaires are not inevitable. They can be stopped.
Parallels to the UK with Zack Polanski and the rise of the Green Party
Mentions
Mamdani Created a Left-Liberal Coalition on Israel/Palestine by Peter Beinart
The Far Right is Not Inevitable | The Fire These Times with Aurelien Mondon (ep. 163)
The Fire These Times is a proud member of From The Periphery (FTP) Media Collective. Check out other projects in our media ecosystem: Syria: The Inconvenient Revolution, From The Periphery Podcast, The Mutual Aid Podcast, Politically Depressed, Obscuristan, and Antidote Zine.
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Dana is on Bluesky
Transcriptions: Transcriptions are done by Antidote Zine and will be published on The Fire These Times' transcript archive.
Credits:
Dana El Kurd (host), Elia Ayoub (host, producer, episode design), Rap and Revenge (Music), Wenyi Geng (TFTT theme design), Hisham Rifai (FTP theme design) and Molly Crabapple (FTP team profile pics)