on fire

on fire

Author: youssef bouchi January 17, 2025 Duration: 3:58

As wildfires rage across Los Angeles, Erika takes a moment to reflect on the personal and the political dimensions of this catastrophe.

We urge listeners to think critically about the individuals and communities most impacted by this situation, and by the climate crisis more broadly.

These fires expose and remind us all that the vulnerability of physical structures people call home hinges upon the vulnerability of social structures that render home-making a precarious luxury.

With every crisis, cracks are exposed. In one of the richest economies in the world, and despite the fact that California has experienced wildfire after wildfire over the past years, we still saw an underfunded LA Fire Department with incarcerated folks on the frontlines of the fires and a crumbling water infrastructure. Is this climate adaptation? Transferring wealth from the bottom-up, shrinking the public purse, and converting taxpayer money to capital fueling the military-industrial complex?

We need a new system.


Here are some articles we urge you to engage with:

‘Running to danger and saving lives’: 1,100 incarcerated firefighters are on the LA frontlines

Shattered in the Fire: A Historic Black Haven

Who Will Pay for LA’s Wildfires?

How Big Oil Made It Harder to Fight the Los Angeles Fires

There’s No Such Thing as a Natural Disaster

And here's a displaced Black families GoFund Me directory:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pK5omSsD4KGhjEHCVgcVw-rd4FZP9haoijEx1mSAm5c/edit?gid=0#gid=0


Hosted by Youssef Bouchi, geopolitical ecology is a podcast that digs into the complex and often unseen connections between political power, global systems, and the natural world. Each episode moves beyond simple environmental discussion to examine how borders, resources, and international relations are fundamentally shaped by-and in turn shape-our planet's ecology. We look at the stories behind the headlines, from water conflicts and energy corridors to the politics of conservation and extraction. The conversations aim to unravel how control over nature is exercised, contested, and reimagined across different landscapes and communities. This isn't just about science or policy in isolation; it's about their messy, fascinating intersection. Tune in for thoughtful analysis that frames the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and resource scarcity as deeply geopolitical issues, revealing the intricate webs where environment and power meet. You'll find this podcast sits at the crossroads of critical social science and ecological thinking, offering a necessary lens for understanding the forces structuring our contemporary world.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 17

geopolitical ecology
Podcast Episodes
Can the State Protect Nature? w/ Rosemary Collard and Jessica Dempsey [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:12:16
In this episode, we talk with Jessica Dempsey and Rosemary Collard about how to think about the capitalist state not as a unified actor, but as a contradictory and often incoherent set of institutions, practices, and rel…
Organizing the Tenant Class w/ Ricardo Tranjan [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:56
In this episode, we’re joined by Ricardo Tranjan, political economist and author of The Tenant Class (2023). Ricardo’s work reframes housing—not as a temporary crisis—but as a long-standing, for-profit system that delibe…
Critical Minerals, Critical Conflicts w/ Emily Iona Stewart [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:00
In this episode, we speak with Emily Iona Stewart to unpack the complex and deeply political dynamics behind the global rush for critical minerals.Why are these minerals—like lithium, cobalt, copper, and nickel—so import…
Chennai Floods: a decade’s hindsight w/ Priti Narayan [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:12:55
In this episode, we speak with Priti Narayan about the devastating floods that hit Chennai, India—a city grappling with the compounding effects of climate change and urban inequality. Reflecting on the floods a decade la…
A state without borders; borders without states w/ Hicham Safieddine [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:23:10
I had the honor to host Dr. Hicham Safieddine, a brilliant Lebanese scholar and historian at the University of British Columbia. His work has included a detailed study of the emergence and transformation of global and na…
The Present Moment in Lebanon, Syria, Palestine w/ Karim Safieddine [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:03:09
A lot has happened and changed in Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine since we last spoke with Karim Safieddine over a month ago in our episode titled “Anti-Establishment Positions in Lebanon and Beyond.” So, we decided to hav…
a diasporic note [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 8:11
Tending to this podcast and putting out episodes, let alone tending to our daily responsibilities, has been incredibly challenging. Our hearts break every day as we witness not only the continuation, but also expansion,…