What Mamdani's Victory Means w/ Dana El Kurd (E208)

For episode 208, Elia and Dana talk about Zahrani Mamdani's victory and what it could mean for all of us.⁠ If you’d like to support The Fire These Times, the best way to do it is through⁠ ⁠⁠Patreon.com/thefirethesetimes⁠. In return, you’ll get early access to everything I record, exclusive videos, the mini-series all at once, access to the monthly hangout, discounts on ⁠my classes⁠ and ⁠newsletter⁠, the class recordings (all of them), an invitation to join the Discord chat, merch, personalised thank you cards, and more stuff to come.Registrations for the November class (online) on modern Lebanese history and politics are now open: ⁠https://thefirethesetimes.com/lebanonclass ⁠------Social Media: Elia (⁠⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠,⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠), TFTT (⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠,⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠)For feedback, requests etc: ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠Everything else is archived on⁠ ⁠⁠⁠the website⁠⁠.------CreditsElia Ayoub (host, producer, episode design),⁠ ⁠⁠⁠the rosa artist⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (TFTT theme design),⁠ ⁠⁠Wenyi Geng⁠ (TFTT theme design), ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Molly Crabapple⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (my profile pic),⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Rap and Revenge⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (Music), and⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Antidote Zine⁠⁠⁠⁠ (Transcriptions)As always, thank you for listening and take care.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 PartyMentions ​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)