0:00 Intro

0:45 Childhood in Philadelphia

7:49 News bulletin

21:19 Darkly funny

26:51 A place full of weird people

32:13 Israeli invasion

45:09 Azar & Arafat

58:32 The boy in Martyrs Square

1:03:28 Transition

1:11:44 Robert Fisk

1:17:04 Q&A

We're with George Azar for Episode 359 of The Beirut Banyan, recorded live at Aaliya’s Books.

Click to watch: https://youtu.be/WfLoa1iz58M

We discuss a childhood in Philadelphia and university student journey to Beirut, and the civil war years that defined a professional career in photojournalism.

Our conversation includes covering the Israeli invasion and siege of Beirut and looking at a collage of photographs taken in the 1980s (among them with Yasser Arafat).

We also talk about Martyrs Square, dark humor in times of tragedy and shared memories of Robert Fisk.

George Azar is a photojournalist, documentary filmmaker and instructor in journalism and digital media at The American University of Beirut.

Special thanks to Samer Beyhum for his audio-technical support.

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