Today we’re joined by Aruna Chandrasekhar. Aruna is a climate and environmental journalist based out of Mumbai, and I wanted to have her on after reading an excellent essay she wrote for Equator called City of Sweat. If you’re listening to this from the UK, the US, Canada or indeed from a good chunk of the world, you experienced heatwaves this year. Very few places experienced them like India did however. So we talked about this summer’s heatwaves across the country and Aruna’s attempt to report on what it’s been like along with photojournalist Ishan Tankha. What folks in Mumbai went through is a warning for the rest of us, and note that Mumbai wasn’t even on the list of the world’s hottest 50 cities in April – all of which were in India. Yes, all. But this is TFTT so this point of this episode is not to simply make everyone mdapresseen – as we’d say in Lebanon – ie depressed, but merely to equip ourselves with the tools we need to face the worsening climate crisis. I wouldn’t be doing episodes like this otherwise.
We also talked about the Cockroach Janta Party and the ongoing protests, because we couldn’t not.
Recs:
- Anything by Lina Mounzer
- The Web Beneath the Waves: The Fragile Cables that Connect our World by Samanth Subramanian
- Run Modi Run by Rahul Bhatia
Elia’s Links
Support: You can support The Fire These Times on Patreon and in return get: early access to all episodes, exclusive videos, mini-series, access to our monthly hangout as well as the Discord channel, discounts on merch, personalised thank you cards, and more to come.
Masterclass on Modern Lebanon: Registration is now open for November 2026.
Newsletter: Subscribe to Hauntologies
Social Media: I’m on Bluesky and Instagram.
Contact: To collaborate, reach out on ayoub@thefirethesetimes.com / Signal @ Ayoub.02
The Fire These Times
Listen: Wherever you get your podcasts.
Social Media: TFTT is on Bluesky and Instagram.
Transcription: You can help Antidote Zine transcribe TFTT episodes here.
Recent Articles
- ShadoMag: How Belfast came together after the pogrom
- 972Mag: Lebanon walks into Israel’s trap
Recent Interviews
- It Could Happen Here: The Media Context for the Belfast Pogrom
- It Could Happen Here: Israel’s Attack on Lebanon
- Crimethinc: “History Is Repeating Itself”
- The Final Straw podcast: The US-Israeli War with Iran Spreads, Nuclear Weapons, Lebanon and Anti-Imperial Solidarity
- The Dugout podcast: Honoring Political Ghosts
- The Breakup Theory podcast: Episode 31 – Iran and the US-Israeli Death Drive Economy
Highlighted Hauntologies articles
- Report from Belfast. Day 1. (July 2026)
- The Lie I Tell Myself When Covering Israel (April 2026)
- Israel’s Lebanese Ghosts (March 2026)
- This moment (January 2025)
- Iranian protesters don’t owe us an explanation (February 2026)
- How Hezbollah lost everything (January 2026)
- Notes on Assadism, Zionism, Fascism and Hope (August 2025)
From The Periphery
TFTT is a proud member of From The Periphery Media Collective. Check out other projects: Politically Depressed | Syria: The Inconvenient Revolution | From The Periphery Podcast | The Mutual Aid Podcast
Credits:
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), Hisham Rifai (FTP theme design), Molly Crabapple (FTP team profile pics) and Antidote Zine (Transcriptions).
Leave a Reply