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Join me (yes, at 1.5x speed if you like) as I read through my Substack essay on the stakes of a second Trump administration. This video explores inflation, the economy, Gen Z’s political potential, the global surge in right-wing populism, the wars in Ukraine and Israel, and how to engage Trump voters meaningfully. It also offers practical steps for new advocates and fresh paths for resistance.
This video features a reading and discussion of my essay on political syncretism during the 1990s, blending personal experience with analysis of anti-globalization protests, radical environmentalism, and freight train activism. It examines how conspiracy thinking and populist rhetoric created ideological overlap that sometimes opened the door to reactionary ideas—including a reflection on Rob Miller of Amebix and his later embrace of Holocaust denial and far-right conspiracies.
Elia Ayoub (he/him) is a writer, researcher, and host of The Fire These Times podcast, which explores global authoritarianism, resistance movements, and post-growth futures. He co-founded From the Periphery, a media collective amplifying marginalized voices. Elia holds a PhD in Cultural Analysis from the University of Zurich, is an Affiliate Fellow at the Post Growth Institute, and works as a Project Manager at Shado Mag.
His work focuses on political ecology, anti-authoritarianism, and decolonial thought, and has appeared in publications such as Al Jazeera, +972 Magazine, Newlines, Commons (Ukraine), Al Jumhuriya (Syria), L’Orient-Le Jour, CrimethInc, and Lausan. He blogs at iwritestuff.blog and can be found on Instagram, Mastodon, and Bluesky.
Solidarity Collectives: Ukrainian Anarchists on the Front Lines of Resistance
Solidarity Collectives is a grassroots network of Ukrainian anarchists formed in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion. This video offers an overview of their work and features a conversation with a collective member about their origins, frontline mutual aid, anti-authoritarian organizing in wartime, Russian imperialism, and the role of propaganda in global narratives.
Mutual Aid on the Border: Supporting Asylees and Communities in the U.S.
This short video introduces a grassroots mutual aid network that provides direct support to asylum seekers at the U.S. border and underserved communities across the country. It highlights their work, values, and how mutual aid operates outside traditional charity models.
This video offers an overview of the Syrian Cantina in Montreuil, featuring an interview with two of its members. We discuss their firsthand experiences of the Syrian Revolution, current events in Syria, solidarity with Ukraine, and regional connections to Palestine, Iraq, and Lebanon. The conversation also explores counter-propaganda efforts, critiques of campist anti-imperialism, the group’s roots in student and Yellow Vest organizing, and their vision of grassroots internationalism.
This video introduces 161 Crew, a Polish antifascist umbrella organization, and features a discussion with one of its members. Topics include grassroots antifascism, mutual aid, international solidarity, Russian propaganda, critiques of the authoritarian left, “westsplaining,” and perspectives on the war in Ukraine and American politics from an Eastern European viewpoint.
This video includes an overview of Autonomous Action and an interview with Antti Rautiainen who was exiled from Russia. Antti talks about the history of Autonomous Action, the current website that arose from the movement, events in Russia leading up to his exile, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, anarchist resistance to Russia, work with political prisoners and more.
This is part two of a two-part conversation with Tom from Rhizome House, a radical center and info shop in Cleveland, Ohio. We discuss the legacy of Cooper Harris Andrews, an anarchist who left Rhizome House to fight in Ukraine, and explore broader themes of international solidarity, autonomous resistance, Tamir Rice, self-defense, campism, stability politics, and the dangers of abstraction on the left.
Rhizome House, Cooper Andrews, and Anarchist Internationalism (Part 1)
In this first of a two-part conversation, I speak with Tom from Rhizome House, a radical center and info shop based in Cleveland, Ohio that supports harm reduction, political education, and community organizing. We discuss the life of Cooper Harris Andrews, an anarchist involved with Rhizome House before joining the fight in Ukraine in an act of international solidarity. The episode also explores themes like self-defense, Tamir Rice, campism, leftist abstraction, the politics of stability, and the role of alternative media in revolutionary work.
Learn more: rhizomehouse.org
Contact: therhizomehouse@protonmail.com
Email list: rhizomehouse.org/email
This video breaks down common fallacies used by so-called “leftist” social media accounts to justify Russia’s war on Ukraine. It critically examines misinformation, campist logic, and selective anti-imperialism that obscures the realities of Russian aggression and Ukrainian self-determination.
This episode then dives into the hacked datasets from Russia’s General Radio Frequency Center (Roskomnadzor), featuring original and translated emails, internal documents, surveillance reports, Excel files, and more—exposing the mechanics of Russian state censorship from the inside.
This episode then dives into the hacked datasets from Russia’s General Radio Frequency Center (Roskomnadzor), featuring original and translated emails, internal documents, surveillance reports, Excel files, and more—exposing the mechanics of Russian state censorship from the inside.
In this episode, I speak with Yuliana Shemetovets, spokesperson for the Belarusian Cyber Partisans. We discuss who the Cyber Partisans are, their hacktivist actions in Belarus, and their role in exposing Russian surveillance and censorship through the #RussianCensorFiles. Yuliana also shares insights on the Belarusian opposition, Russian AI used for media control, and digital resistance in authoritarian contexts.
Yuliana on Twitter: @yuliana_shem
Cyber Partisans Telegram: t.me/cpartisans
Article cited: VICE – Why They're Hacking to Stop Russia
This video offers a detailed overview of the concepts, ideologies, and individuals behind pro-Russian separatist movements in Ukraine. Aimed at Western audiences, it breaks down the roots of Novorossiya, the influence of Alexander Dugin, the role of groups like the Russian Imperial Movement, and propaganda narratives surrounding the Ukraine war. The episode connects separatist politics to imperialism, white supremacist networks, and disinformation campaigns in online and Western media spaces.
This video explores the historical foundations of modern right-wing conspiracy thinking, tracing its roots to antisemitic ideologies embedded in the Christian Identity movement. Focusing on figures like William Potter Gale, it examines how conspiracies once confined to fringe churches merged with anti-communism, tax resistance, and white supremacist politics from the 1950s–1980s. These ideas fueled early militia formations, laid the groundwork for the Patriot and Tea Party movements, and ultimately helped legitimize MAGA politics and January 6th. The video also discusses how some of this rhetoric echoes in parts of the online left .