This is a conversation with Asser Khattab, a Syrian writer who has reported on Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq for various international news outlets. We spoke about his essay for New Lines Magazine, “why I stopped writing about Syria.” This is episode 97 of The Fire These Times podcast.

Topics Discussed:

• How Asser started writing about Syria
• Pigeonholing as Arab journalists
• Why Asser stopped writing about Syria
• Us leaving Lebanon at the same time
• Picturing safe spaces
• What is ‘normal’?
• The role of Twitter in journalism
• The dangers of living in Lebanon as an undocumented Syrian
• Survivor’s guilt and imposter’s syndrome

Resources Mentioned:

• A look at the Lebanon uprising through its chants
• Syrian melancholy in Lebanon’s revolution
• Newlines Podcast
• That Cairo Concert, Mental Health and Growing Up Queer in Lebanon (With Hamed Sinno)
• ‘Revolution everywhere’: A conversation between Hong Kong and Lebanese protesters
• Hong Kong’s Existential Crisis (with JP)
• Syrian Prison Literature and the Poetics of Human Rights (with Shareah Taleghani)
• Syria, Journalism and the Cost of Indifference
• In the End, It Was All About Love (with Musa Okwonga)

Recommended Books:

• Dying Every Day: Seneca at the Court of Nero by James Romm
• Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe
• God: An Anatomy by Francesca Stavrakopoulou

If you like what I do, please consider supporting this project with only 5$ a month (or 50 a year) on Patreon or on BuyMeACoffee.com. You can also do so directly on PayPal if you prefer.

Patreon is for monthly/yearly, PayPal is for one-offs and BuyMeACoffee has both options.

You can follow on Twitter or Instagram @ firethesetimes too.

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!