Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor join moderator Dr. Carol Liao for an essential conversation about their book, END TIMES FASCISM: And the Fight for the Living World.
Filmed live October 8, 2026 at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts in partnership with UBC Centre for Climate Justice.
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Across politics, technology, and culture, a powerful narrative is taking hold: that ecological collapse, social breakdown, and mass instability are inevitable. Klein and Taylor examine how this fatalism is shaping a worldview in which elites prepare for survival while abandoning collective responsibility. From fortified enclaves to fantasies of off-world escape, they trace how fear of the future is being used to justify inequality, exclusion, and authoritarianism.
But this apocalyptic thinking, despite tech-bro billionaire and Christian fundamentalist insistence, can be rejected. Klein and Taylor offer a sharp framework for understanding this moment and how to fight it, challenging us to deny the pervasive belief in impending doom, defend human dignity, and imagine futures rooted in collective care, solidarity, and the hope that change is possible.
Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author of Doppelganger, No Logo, and The Shock Doctrine. At the University of British Columbia, she is founding Co-Director of the Centre for Climate Justice and Associate Professor in the Department of Geography.
Astra Taylor is an award-winning writer, activist, and documentarian, and a cofounder of the Debt Collective. She is the author of The People’s Platform, which won the American Book Award; Democracy May Not Exist, but We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone; and The Age of Insecurity.
Moderator: Dr. Carol Liao is Professor of Law and UBC Sauder Distinguished Fellow at the University of British Columbia. An award-winning scholar and teacher, she is also Co-Director of the Centre for Climate Justice and Chair of the Canada Climate Law Initiative.
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Mike Southworth, Director & Editor
Joanna Dundas, Producer
Camera: Barry Ambrosio, Fabrizio Belardetti, Daniel Byrne, and Aaron Nathanson
James Perrella, Audio Recording
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00:12 Welcome from Jarrett Martineau, Chan Centre Head Curator
02:52 Video Presentation
12:50 Introduction by moderator Dr. Carol Liao, Co-Director of the Centre for Climate Justice
18:50 Discussion with Naomi Klein & Astra Taylor
1:27:10 Special Guest, Cedar George-Parker of Tsleil-Waututh Nation
1:40:45 Final Thoughts: What do you want to fight for?
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