Solarpunk Presents

The Stellar Lunarpunk 4/20 Live Action Roleplay (LARP)

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 14:36:01 GMT

The Stellar Lunarpunk TTRPG Live Action Roleplay (LARP) Virtual gathering and Real Life Planting!

The eco quest is Pollination, planting food and pollinator friendly plants in the world of The Stellar. Gather points for planting according to your character’s number and earn new story snippets with your points, buy choices, and use our custom lunarpunk tarot cards to guide your way through choices and campaigns! Gameplay is cooperative so the person with the best numbers is encouraged to play in each instance. If this sounds fun to you we gather on April 20, 2026 (a Monday) and we play all day on our preferred video communication tool which happens to be green! A truly carbon neutral experience 🙂 planting for the world!! Join us! Limited availability but if there is demand, you can have several organizers in several rooms, each room has a 30 person cap. Find out more on Fastfrwrd.info under the menu: Gatherings

To be clear: This gathering requires you to have decent data so that you can plant real seeds and seedlings throughout the day while on video phone. You will have to have things to plant that you arrange ahead of time and you plant while on the phone with us and we enhance the experience with gameplay. You get it? If you have been procrastinating about planting stuff or if there is a field nearby that could use some wildflowers or a little section of dirt in the city that could use a sneaky injection of herbs or flowers, do so with us on the phone! REAL plants and planting, imaginary gameplay and possible new friends! Now does that sound fun or what?!

Hope to see you there!

8am UTC -5:00 to 8pm, April 20, 2026, a Monday or Moonday, powerful because it is 4/20, weed friendly but also the birthdate of Adolf Hitler, a figure who exemplifies the excesses of the 20th century and its ability to affect humanity's existence on a level above previous technological capability. Since then, we have held the keys to destroying all known life. It may be important to commemorate such a day and fight back against its meaning. And you can also make friends.

So this will be Monday, April 20, 2026 from 8am UTC -5:00 or Eastern Standard Time (EST) to 8pm, however, If you have a job, never fear, we have an afternoon section starting 5:30pm EST/UTC -5:00 for late-comers to join, as long as we still have seats, your fellow players will have more information than you. This is a part of it. Plant with us after work or school.

Gathering Link: https://fastfrwrd.info/gatherings/the-stellar-4-20-larp-live-action-roleplay-pollination-campaign/
The Stellar TTRPG Game Documents: https://fastfrwrd.info/the-stellar-%C2%A4-lunarpunk-ttrpg-%E2%98%86/
The Stellar TTRPG Group Link for Recap: https://fastfrwrd.info/groups/the-stellar-public/
Support us on Patreon for more gatherings like this: https://www.patreon.com/cw/solarpunkpresents

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Carbon Neutral Strike Update 13: Days 121 to 130

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Hi! This is the summary of days 121 to 130 where we discuss nukes on the moon or whitehouse pretty much being unacceptable so get that guy out of office please. That's the most relevant thing.

CW: 'R' word.

I’m Aleya, and I founded Fastfrwrd.info. I have been carrying out a Carbon Neutral Strike where I avoid oil, gas and plastic as much as I can. I have been posting daily updates since Earth Day, April 22, 2025 on this process as well as my musings about the world as it is now.

Website: https://fastfrwrd.info
Music (also on Fastfrwrd): https://aleya.bandcamp.com
Solarpunk Presents Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/solarpunkpresents

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Carbon Neutral Strike Update 12: Days 111 to 120

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Hi! This is the summary of days 111 to 120 where we discuss inventions and archive footprints, wind-powered stop-sign flags that capture wind from passing cars, weed and hypocrisy, communal benefits at work, levels of reason, desire to break out full Carbon Neutral mode, the repo man/person, CW: suicidal ideation, songs to say goodbye, quitting university, Tuvalu going under water, friends racism and buried memories while sorting my trash for like literally 2 minutes.

Website: https://fastfrwrd.info
Music (also on Fastfrwrd): https://aleya.bandcamp.com
Solarpunk Presents Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/solarpunkpresents

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Carbon Neutral Strike Update 11: Days 101 to 110

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 17:00:00 GMT

Hi! This is the summary of days 101 to 110 where we discuss wasps, process, the world not having to make sense, my manifesto, debt, Jamaican industries mostly being care related and servitude, the more you pollute the more you earn, video games not being accessible, neurodiversity and feelings of telepathy, body feeding my cake to ants, climate change is murder just like meat is murder, no wooden/bamboo toothbrushes at the stores in Jamaica (could be wrong), heartbreak and mental health, and Elon Musk saying 'Auswitz' at a Trump rally leading up to the election. Was it a mistake or a dog whistle?

Website: https://fastfrwrd.info
Music (also on Fastfrwrd): https://aleya.bandcamp.com
Solarpunk Presents Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/solarpunkpresents

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Carbon Neutral Strike Update 10: Days 91 to 100

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 16:44:45 GMT

Hi! This is the summary of days 91 to 100 where we discuss respecting those killing us all, leading by example, embarrassment, now not later, omens, earth and ecofeminism, labour theory of value LTV, illegal to leak trade secrets up to 10 years but perfectly legal to render someone homeless or watch someone starve and 100 days of striking!

Website: https://fastfrwrd.info
Music (also on Fastfrwrd): https://aleya.bandcamp.com
Solarpunk Presents Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/solarpunkpresents

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Carbon Neutral Strike Update 9: Days 81 to 90

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 05:00:00 GMT

Hi! This is the summary of days 81 to 90 where we discuss jam sessions, mondegreens, philosophers, body positivity and how our past can shape our physical form, stories of a world without war for a time, music that revives and more.

Website: https://fastfrwrd.info
Music (also on Fastfrwrd): https://aleya.bandcamp.com
Solarpunk Presents Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/solarpunkpresents

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Carbon Neutral Strike Update 8: Days 71 to 80

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Hi! This is the summary of days 71 to 80 where we discuss sweatsuits of the future, flat hierarchies, my workplace playing with my money, going to jam sessions, earnestness and issues even on the left, anti-environmentalists and the punishment for putting an entire planet in peril, Direct Democracy, Americans (US) negotiating with their homegrown terrorists (bigots and racial separatists), needing sunglasses (but plastic, so...), brains and lunch sucking due to always having to search out food permitted by the strike.

Website: https://fastfrwrd.info
Music (also on Fastfrwrd): https://aleya.bandcamp.com
Solarpunk Presents Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/solarpunkpresents

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Carbon Neutral Strike Update 7: Days 61 to 70

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Hi! This is the summary of days 61 to 70 where we discuss critters and critter control, coding games, spinning plates, missing my pet, performing badly on TV, the expenses of modern life, looks versus real, saying 'lol' and trying not to cringe when I hear it loool, solarpunk answers to the polycrisis, and more.

Website: https://fastfrwrd.info
Music (also on Fastfrwrd): https://aleya.bandcamp.com
Solarpunk Presents Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/solarpunkpresents

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Carbon Neutral Strike Update 6: Days 51 to 60

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 15:00:00 GMT

Hi! This is the summary of days 51 to 60 where we discuss plastic-free shopping, tasty salad tests, performing on TV (and not being good at it), the true cost, protesting but still serving the system by driving with fossil fuels to get there, manifestos and omens, sentencing the exploiters of the planet, 666 in my payslip and the way watermelon should be.

Website: https://fastfrwrd.info
Music (also on Fastfrwrd): https://aleya.bandcamp.com
Solarpunk Presents Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/solarpunkpresents

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Carbon Neutral Strike Update 5: Days 41 to 50

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Hi! This is the summary of days 41 to 50 where we discuss not wanting to worship nature, natural remedies and skepticism, self promo or pride? Speaking life through stories, being the Avatar, Freudian Slips, ants trying to keep me from cheating on the strike, Instinct Trust, trying my hand at programming, textiles having memory and traumatic experiences, the illusion of choice and the need for a Climate Commons to save our lives by revealing how to make and thereby render sustainable the materials and products we use everyday.

Website: https://fastfrwrd.info

Music (also on Fastfrwrd): https://aleya.bandcamp.com

Solarpunk Presents Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/solarpunkpresents

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Carbon Neutral Strike Update 4: Days 31 to 40

Sun, 29 Mar 2026 20:00:00 GMT

Hi! This is the summary of days 31 to 40 where we discuss the right to land, access to food and water, fair wages, self-censorship and cancel culture, billionaire bosses, my swollen lymph node, reputation economies, alternative currencies and bubbles, rights to life, solar generators, blood, National Housing Trust, Permaculture’s slave problem, weird rituals, and 1.5 to Stay Alive.

Website: https://fastfrwrd.info
Music: https://aleya.bandcamp.com
Solarpunk Presents Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/solarpunkpresents

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Carbon Neutral Strike Update 3: Days 21 to 30

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 17:51:47 GMT

This is the summary of days 21 to 30 of my Carbon Neutral Strike where we discuss eco porn, socialist mental healthcare, becoming someone who can go to work everyday (ish), Climate Sins, and Parseltongue.

Website: https://fastfrwrd.info
Music: https://aleya.bandcamp.com
Support the Solarpunk Presents Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/solarpunkpresents

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Carbon Neutral Strike Update 2: Days 11-20

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:14:57 GMT

This is the summary of days 11 to 20 where we discuss Elon Musk’s obscene wealth, scams and the lack of access to payment portals in Jamaica, Direct Democracy possibilities, welfare and leisure, LPG gas in Jamaica and a salad recipe at the end.

Music featured in these episodes are from me under the name Aleya Jobson. The songs can be found on most music streaming services, bandcamp and Fastfrwrd.info

So much more to say, but as you listen, I'm sure you'll find out. Thanks so much.

Update lengths vary based on what I have to say on a given day. I will be releasing 2025's clips in chunks of 10 and then when we're all caught up, I aim to release regularly as much as possible as long as I am not repeating myself too much, or feeling unwell, or need to reflect. Are you ready? Then let's go.

Links:

Website: https://fastfrwrd.info
Music: https://aleya.bandcamp.com

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Carbon Neutral Strike Update 1: Days 1-10

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 23:00:00 GMT

Hey Solarpunk Presents listeners, my name is Aleya Jobson. While your regular listening material is on hiatus, I thought I would pop in and provide some material of my own that have accumulated since April 22, 2025. Starting Earth Day 2025 I commenced or recommenced, rather, my Carbon Neutral Strike and Challenge, where at least one choice per day avoids needless oil, gas or plastic. During the process I began to share musings, emotions, opinions, and findings around the central tenet of what is essentially a 'clean' lifestyle. One that is truly aware of its wastes and excesses. This process, I believe, is eye opening and very interesting to observe, even if you don't do it yourself. It was made all the more fun and engaging because I was acquiring points called 'Dews' on my platform Fastfrwrd.info for sharing my findings and keeping a green lifestyle. Dews can buy user-generated goods and unlock games, while still surfing green on Fastfrwrd, which is a sustainable oasis on the internet with green energy credits powering it. As you listen, I hope you feel, as I do, that the process is a worthwhile method for figuring out where you stand in the Anthropocene, and what really matters in life. Ariel and Christina have been so gracious to platform me, and I am forever grateful.

Music featured in these episodes are from me under the name Aleya Jobson. The songs can be found on most music streaming services, bandcamp and Fastfrwrd.info

So much more to say, but as you listen, I'm sure you'll find out. Thanks so much.

Episode includes: Mangoes from the neighbourhood, climate sins, 666 sightings, plastic brick plans that (spoilers) still haven't come true, and attempts at carbon neutrality through offsets, emissions avoidance and waste prevention.

Links:

Website: https://fastfrwrd.info
Music: https://aleya.bandcamp.com
The Stellar (Lunarpunk TTRPG): https://fastfrwrd.info/the-stellar-%c2%a4-lunarpunk-ttrpg-%e2%98%86/

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8.3: Fastfrwrd to the Solarpunk Future

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 12:00:00 GMT

We’re back! (Kind of…) In this episode, Ariel interviews Aleya Jobson about gamifying climate action with the Fastfrwrd website, where people can be rewarded for positive climate actions in their own lives. They also discuss Aleya’s Carbon Neutral Strike: how Aleya started it, how it’s going, and its pros and cons. Starting next week, Aleya will be taking over the feed with reflections on her Carbon Neutral living; Christina and Ariel are still s t r u g g l i n g but Aleya is willing and able to keep the solarpunk content going in the meantime. Tune in - you won’t want to miss this.

*At 2:48 Aleya mentions IRL, which is short for “In Real Life”.

Links:

Fastfrwrd website: https://fastfrwrd.info
Game makers group: https://fastfrwrd.info/groups/fastfrwrd-games-group-for-game-makers/
The Stellar TTRPG: https://fastfrwrd.info/the-stellar-%c2%a4-lunarpunk-ttrpg-%e2%98%86/
Carbon-neutral game jam: https://itch.io/jam/fastfrwrd-twine-game-jam
Browsers/search engines that plant trees or remove plastic from the ocean: https://wavebrowser.com/; https://www.searchfortrees.com/#gsc.tab=0; https://www.ecosia.org/

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8.2: Solarpunk in the Library with Joseph Brannan

Mon, 06 Oct 2025 23:29:26 GMT

In today’s episode, Ariel chats with Joseph Brannan about sustainability workshop series at the Kitchener Public Library, unionizing library workers, and bringing solarpunk into the sustainability conversation.

Links:

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8.1: Ariel & Christina Discuss: What History Says About What It Takes to Level Inequality

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 12:00:00 GMT

We like to think that a rising tide lifts all boats. But, according to Stanford University historian Dr. Walter Scheidel, wealth and income inequality have almost always only grown drastically toward the maximum level a society can sustain in times of peace and prosperity. Instead, as he outlined in his book The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century, true leveling of inequality between, for example, the rich and the poor, has almost always happened as a result of exceptionally catastrophically violent events that take the lives of a good chunk of the population (see, for instance: the Black Death, World War II, and the communist revolutions of the 21st century).

This has shattered Christina’s previously strong faith in democracy, and we discuss just how and why that happened. Does human society stand any chance of leveling inequality voluntarily, intentionally, and peacefully aka, which is to say, without having to go through an event of widespread death, turmoil, destruction, and suffering? Join us as we wonder whether, in order to reach a solarpunk future world of justice, equality, and harmony, we will ever be able to escape this historical pattern.

Links:

The Great Leveler by Walter Schiedel
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Encyclopedia Britannica Entry
“Government accused of hoarding Canadian history in 'secret' archives” CBC News article
Ea-Nasir meme explainer
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

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7.10: Ariel & Christina Discuss the Merits of "Walkaway" by Cory Doctorow

Mon, 11 Aug 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Cory Doctorow’s 2017 novel Walkaway has a reputation in solarpunk circles as a great example of a solarpunk lifestyle, and a must-read book for everyone from the individual who lives and breathes solarpunk to the solarpunk-curious to general science fiction fans. But what is it about Walkaway that gives it solarpunk cred? Ariel and Christina ponder this, discussing features of the novel that could be considered solarpunk, and some that might be more post-cyberpunk than anything, and how some of the ideologies and technologies are or have been applied in our present world. Is the world of Walkaway an achievable solarpunk paradise, or a nice hopeful story featuring very cool gadgets and bites of lefty philosophy? Or something else entirely? What is the draw, here, anyway? Join us to think through some of the quandaries and ideas the book raises.

Links:

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7.9: Writing (and Doing!) Magical Activism Through Solarpunk Fiction With BrightFlame

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 12:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Ariel talks with BrightFlame: witch, workshop leader, co-founder of the Center for Sustainable Design at Columbia University, and author of solarpunk witchcraft short stories and now a new novel, called The Working. They discuss what solarpunk witchcraft looks like and how, though witchcraft’s manipulation of energy on the astral plane is extremely important, magic is only one half of the equation: the other is activism - actually getting out there and doing the thing, whether it’s attending a protest, contributing to a potluck to strengthen community bonds, or making something with a specific intent in mind.

BrightFlame (she/they) writes, teaches, and makes magic towards a just, regenerative world. In her debut novel, The Working, a modern coven must thwart a looming eco-cataclysm and find the key to the bright futures we need. She's a member of the Climate Fiction Writers League and SFWA, and her solarpunk stories are featured in Bright Green Futures, Solarpunk Creatures, Bioluminescent, and Solarpunk Magazine. She’s known for her teaching in the worldwide pagan community and co-founded the Center for Sustainable Futures at Columbia University that features her workshops and nonfiction. She lives on Lenape territory (Turtle Island/U.S.) with a human, a forest, a labyrinth, the Fae, bees, turtles, fungi, and many other nonhumans. Visit brightflame.com for musings, doodles, workshops, and more.

Links:

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7.8: Why Do These Cancelled Science Grants Matter?

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 12:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Christina talks to Dr Gabriel Filippelli - one of the first scientists to have a running project canceled by the Trump administration. This fascinating interview reveals just how important internationally and domestically these American grants can be, and Dr Filippelli passionately describes this unprecedented attack on science and education and what we all lose when the work that scientists do grinds to a halt or is extremely politically curtailed. It's important, he tells us, to support the institutions that you care about and are vital to the continued knowledge of how to survive our climate-changed future.

Dr Filippelli is the Chancellor’s Professor of Earth Sciences at Indiana University Indianapolis and the Executive Director of the Indiana University Environmental Resilience Institute. He works at the junction between biogeochemical cycles, climate change, and human health.

Dr Filippelli has also written the book Climate Change and Life: The Complex Co-evolution of Climate and Life on Earth, and Beyond, which explores Earth's ecological resilience to the great changes in climate that have occurred over the history of the Earth. He was also part of the driving force behind Climate Change and Resilience in Indiana and Beyond, which details local efforts to reduce the risks and lessen the harmful impacts of climate change, as well as prepare for the unavoidable consequences of climate change.

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7.7: Ariel & Christina Discuss Living with a Disability as a Solarpunk

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Today Christina talks to Ariel about what it's been like to live as a solarpunk with a visible - and then invisible - disability. Science fiction has spent decades dreaming of how future tech will make disabled people able to function as if they were fully abled. Now solarpunk has arrived on the scene to ask why should disabled bodies have to always be the ones to adapt? It can be uncomfortable, intrusive - not to mention expensive. Solarpunk wonders why can't cities, society, workplaces, and the like be the ones to use the tech to make themselves more accessible to and inclusive of disabled people?

Tune in as Ariel and Christina discuss the portrayal of disability in science fiction and solarpunk and how having to suddenly live with a disability opens your eyes to many of the ways cities fail people with disabilities.

Links:

The Spoon Theory: https://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/articles/written-by-christine/the-spoon-theory/
The Place of Disability in a Solarpunk Future: https://sammylincroft.medium.com/the-place-of-disability-in-a-solarpunk-future-1db5e40ddb55
r/solarpunk plea for solarpunk not to exclude the disabled: https://www.reddit.com/r/solarpunk/comments/oxpj34/please_dont_exclude_disabled_folks_from_a/
Disability Justice page by Sins Invalid: https://sinsinvalid.org/10-principles-of-disability-justice/
"Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction" Uncanny Magazine: https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-disabled-people-destroy-science-fiction-manifesto/

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7.6: Abundance, Inclusion, Resilience: The One Million Neighbours Project with Sam Nabi

Mon, 19 May 2025 12:00:00 GMT

This episode, Ariel speaks to Sam Nabi about One Million Neighbours, a project bringing together the voices of local non-profits that envisions the future of Waterloo Region once the population has reached one million. Sam discusses the impetus for the project, providing a voice for the voiceless, the issue with grant applications, funding the future, being proactive instead of reactive to harsh policies, and much more. What might an abundant, inclusive, resilient (Ariel says: solarpunk) city look like on the human level? Who lives there, what do they value, and what are their daily lives like? And what does it look like to take action now at the regional/municipal level to ensure that utopian vision?

Links:

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7.5: Ariel & Christina Discuss: Four Great Things We Take for Granted and Ought to Fight to Keep

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 12:00:00 GMT

In these dark times of (American) political backsliding/the general rise of fascism in the Global North, Ariel and Christina consider four things that we'd made great progress on, to the point of taking those achievements for granted. Let's take the time to acknowledge them and the danger we are in of losing them. Because how can we fight for what we don't recognize as being incredible yet fragile?

Links:

"From White Guilt to Race Traitors": https://illwill.com/talk-amongst-yourselves-from-white-guilt-to-race-traitors
"What Does it Really Mean to be a White Ally?": https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-does-really-mean-white-ally-cecily-rodriguez/.
Exploring Actor -> Ally -> Accomplice: https://www.whiteaccomplices.org/

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7.4: Enhancing the local values chain with community gardens feat. Doug Jones

Mon, 07 Apr 2025 12:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Ariel interviews Doug Jones from Waterloo Region Community Garden Network, and he discusses about how the Network was started, what it does, and the benefits of gardening for the health and wellbeing not only for you but for your entire community. We discuss gleaning, food insecurity, access to land, and much more; this is an episode you’re going to want to listen to, especially if rising cost of food and food security are concerns for you these days.

I (Ariel) have included some links to the local organizations he mentions, as well as some that expand on some of the topics we discussed.

*Carol Popovich was the public health nurse who worked with Doug to create the original Waterloo Region Community Garden Council.

Links:

Waterloo Region Community Garden Network official site: https://wrcgardennetwork.ca/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WRCGN/
“Cost of a Healthy Diet: A Population-Representative Comparison of 3 Diet Cost Methods in Canada” - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39270849/
“Every hour children spend on screens raises chance of myopia, study finds” https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/feb/21/every-hour-children-spend-on-screens-raises-chance-of-myopia-study-finds
“Cura Annonae” aka grain dole: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cura_annonae
“Addressing vitamin D deficiency in Canada: a public health innovation whose time has come” - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20413135/
Iodine Deficiency on the rise in Canada- https://blog.mdpi.com/2022/08/19/iodine-deficiency-canada/
The Raw Carrot: https://therawcarrot.com/
Eat With Afia: https://www.instagram.com/eatwithafia/

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7.3: They Sent Us to Camp: My Family's Experience of Internment During WWII, With Chie Furuya

Mon, 17 Mar 2025 15:00:00 GMT

If you meet a Japanese American, depending on their age, it’s a pretty good bet that they, their parents, and/or their grandparents (or great-grandparents) were imprisoned by the US government in so-called internment camps for several years during World War II. Most families lost everything they had built up: farms, homes, businesses, jobs, possessions, and whatever wealth they had accrued.

If you meet a Japanese American, it’s also a pretty good bet, they probably won’t spontaneously start talking about what they or their family went through, how they feel about it, and how they or their family recovered from the ordeal. I (Christina) wanted to rectify that by sitting down with my old friend Chie Furuya, whose parents (as tiny children), grandparents, and other family members were “sent to camp”, to ask her about it. The answers and stories she had for me were both fascinating and unexpectedly heartening. Her people are a resilient, cheerful people and I feel like there are life lessons for all of us here, in terms of withstanding and recovering from severe injustice (and coming out on top).

Ariel’s addition to this episode description is to point out that Japanese internment occurred in Canada in the early 20th century as well. We (by which she means Canada, or perhaps so-called Canada, as she likes to call it) aren't some bastion of anti-racism and tolerant plurality (if we ever were). Here are a few links for further edification if you are interested or want to know more about the Canadian side of the story:

-"Where is Japantown?" a Secret Life of Canada podcast that describes this history in detail: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/203-the-secret-life-of-canada/episode/15776151-s3-where-is-japantown
-Obasan by Joy Kogawa is an incredibly famous work of Canadian Literature - or at least, it was, back in the day, as it came out in 1981. But IYKYK. It describes the fallout of the Japanese internment camps through the eyes of a young girl growing up in Alberta and it galvanized the nisei community to stand up to the Canadian government and demand accountability and reparations for the atrocities of the internment camps. Link here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9723.Obasan
-Here is a link to the Japanese-Canadian centre in Toronto, the only Japanese cultural centre that I know of in central/eastern Canada: https://jccc.on.ca/ and the Nikkei Museum in BC: https://centre.nikkeiplace.org/

Download the transcript for free here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/125524354?collection=1380839

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Ariel & Christina Discuss: Why Must Utopia Be Cruel?

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 13:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Ariel and Christina try to get to the bottom of why our fictional visions of utopia are so negative. They often involve mindless acquiescence to an authoritarian nanny state, the oppression and labor of an underclass, or both. It’s as if we can’t imagine a situation in which we all voluntarily treat each other (reasonably) decently and life can be good for everyone. We discuss the literary origins of utopia, how it has evolved (or not) as a concept, and Ariel gives a few examples of sci-fi futures that are about as close to her style of solarpunk utopia as can be. Ultimately, the topic of utopia raises more questions than answers!

Links:

Original blog on the concept of a protopia: https://kk.org/thetechnium/protopia/
Audio dramatization of "Kitaskinaw 2350": https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/1020-this-place/episode/15862270-kitaskinaw-2350
"This Place" publisher's page: https://www.portageandmainpress.com/Books/T/This-Place
Episode 6.10: the Dilemma of Utopian Joy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saBnIh3jZq4

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Ariel & Christina Discuss the Truth About Biofuels

Mon, 03 Feb 2025 15:00:00 GMT

Back in summer of 2024, in a bonus chat, Ariel & Christina tackled the question of whether or not hydrogen is a sustainable fuel. In this Season 7 opener, Ariel & Christina tackle the next obvious question: are biofuels any better? Join us while we shatter any dreams you might have had of biofuels being a sustainable, carbon-neutral fuel. As we discovered when we started digging, they do far more harm than good.

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The Dilemma of Utopian Joy: Ariel & Christina Discuss

Mon, 13 Jan 2025 09:00:00 GMT

S6E10: The Dilemma of Utopian Joy

While solarpunks often choose to stand in direct opposition to selfishness, greed, and systemic problems, the choice to be kind and to prioritize joy, sympathy, and understanding is also central to solarpunk in fiction and in real life. As Christina and Ariel discuss, while acts of kindness occur in all sorts of fictions, even cyberpunk and dystopian fictions, acts of kindness in solarpunk stories tend to be transformative, especially for the person or group on the receiving end. They then explore the sacrifices that it takes (and who has to make them) in order to maintain peace, prosperity, and joy in society by two famous solarpunk–adjacent stories set in utopias, “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula K. LeGuin and “The Ones Who Stay and Fight” by N.K. Jemisin. Christina is not sure if she’s on board for either of these stories, but she agrees with the premise that now is the time not to walk away in disillusionment, but to fight hard for human rights, justice, and fairness in all of our different political systems and societies.

Links:

The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

The Ones Who Stay and Fight

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There's More to Explore: Diving Deeper Into Fully Automated! a Solarpunk RPG, With Andy Gross

Mon, 30 Dec 2024 15:09:23 GMT

Due to personal issues, Christina couldn't take part in the original interview with Andy Gross about the solarpunk role playing game Fully Automated! that made up S6E2. But she had questions. In this episode, she had a chance to ask them. Before you grab your dice and download the game (for free!) at https://fullyautomatedrpg.com/ have a listen!

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Fighting the Far Right's Attack on Public Education with Dr Sam Myovitch

Mon, 16 Dec 2024 13:00:04 GMT

Across the USA, the far right candidates have been getting themselves elected to local and county school boards. Their goals include financially choking public schools by diverting government funds toward charter schools, often religious in orientation. Tune in to hear what Dr Sam Myovich, retired history teacher turned school board candidate campaign field coordinator, has to say about what’s at stake, the far right’s deployment of fascist tactics in their fight to destroy public education, and what we ordinary citizens can do to fight back against them, save our schools, and protect our very democracy itself.

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Restorative Justice & Reconciliation with Rev. Nora Jacob

Mon, 02 Dec 2024 13:00:35 GMT

Join us for a conversation with Rev. Nora Jacob on a better way to dispense justice than to subject offenders to a strictly brutal prison experience. A way that, by recognizing that hurt people hurt people, aims to empower, not just victims, but also offenders, to heal. This isn’t just showing mercy to incarcerated people, it significantly lowers the chances that they’ll end up back in prison after their release. That's a win for us all.

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Emotional Literacy with Dr Tiffany Millacci

Mon, 18 Nov 2024 13:00:57 GMT

In this week’s episode, Ariel quizzes guest Dr Tiffany Millacci about emotional literacy. What is this relatively new phrase? How can being emotionally literate help us to navigate difficult conversations, awkward interactions, or even generally just having relationships in the first place? Isn’t all this talk of emotions just a different way for the self-help industry to get us to buy stuff?

Join us for a fascinating conversation about a complex topic - we barely skim the surface! But never fear, Dr Millacci has your back; listen in for some good places to start learning more.

Links:

Dr Millacci's author profile on positivepsychology.com
Emotional literacy in the context of applying it to relationships
Emotional literacy vs emotional maturity

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6.5: Teaching Hopepunk Fiction with Dr Tanis MacDonald

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 13:00:37 GMT

On this episode of the podcast, Ariel chats with Dr Tanis MacDonald about her upcoming course in winter 2025 on hopepunk. What exactly is so punk about this kind of hope? Can hopepunk even be said to be a genre in its own right, or is it an aesthetic or lens that we can use to think through just why the characters are deciding to have hope in bleak situations?

Tune in for recommendations of hopepunk novels (and poetry!), ruminations on political hope, the centrality of relationships and radical empathy to these stories, and more. Plus some academic theories informing the formulations of hope, of course.

Links:

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The Challenges and Joys of Fostering Rescue Animals: With Rena Curtis

Mon, 21 Oct 2024 14:14:23 GMT

If you’re a no-kill animal shelter or an animal rescue group and you’ve got more rescue animals than kennels to keep them in, or you’ve got dogs or cats with health or behavioral problems that need sorting out to make the beasts adoptable, what are you going to do? You’re going to call an animal fosterer like Rena Curtis to take that animal in, de-traumatize it, teach it some manners, and get its health problems sorted out so it can go a-courtin’ its forever people. Tune in as we discuss this hard, sometimes frightening, occasionally heart-wrenching, but ultimately satisfying work, why there are so many more dogs and cats than homes to put them in, and what we can do to change that situation.

You can follow Rena on Instagram at @sockmonkeylove33

To learn more about the animal rescue organizations she has fostered for, visit https://www.yavapaihumanetrappers.org/ and https://yavapaihumane.org/

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6.3: Fully Automated! A Solarpunk RPG, with Andy Gross

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 12:00:00 GMT

This week on Solarpunk Presents, we’re bringing you an interview with Andy Gross, one of the brilliant minds behind Fully Automated! A Solarpunk TableTop RPG (Role-Playing Game). Don’t worry, you don’t need to know game jargon to follow along for this one - solarpunk storytelling comes in a lot of different forms, and this is yet another kind for people to use to imagine a kinder, greener future that strives towards a utopia … of sorts.

RPGs get a reputation for being all about fighting. How does that work if the RPG is solarpunk? Or utopian even? What is an RPG, in the first place? What is the usefulness of a solarpunk RPG? Join us as we discuss these questions and more.

Art used in episode cover is by https://patreon.com/seanbodley and...

Links:

You can find Fully Automated at https://fullyautomatedrpg.com/

The Sogorea Te Land Trust: https://sogoreate-landtrust.org/

Solarpunk 2050: http://solarpunk2050.de/

Solarpunk Pioneers Fund: http://solarpunk-pioneers.org/

Coyote & Crow: https://coyoteandcrow.net/

Lunar Echos: https://affinity-games.itch.io/

Neon Black: https://notwriting.itch.io/

Legacy: Life Among the Ruins: https://ufopress.co.uk/legacy-life-among-the-ruins/

Fighting for the Future: https://www.android-press.com/product-page/fighting-for-the-future-ebook

“Murder in the Tool Library” by AE Marling: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/murder-in-the-tool-library-a-e-marling/1144354144

“Fully Automated Luxury Communism: A Manifesto” by Aaron Bastani: https://www.versobooks.com/products/476-fully-automated-luxury-communism

“Four Futures: Life After Capitalism” by Peter Fraise: https://www.versobooks.com/products/59-four-futures

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6.2: Publishing Eco-horror & Solarpunk with Selena Middleton of Stelliform Press

Mon, 23 Sep 2024 12:00:09 GMT

This week on Solarpunk Presents Podcast, Ariel chats with Selena Middleton, Publisher and Editor of Stelliform Press, all about publishing eco-fiction. What is eco-horror, and how does it relate to solarpunk fiction? What are the hallmarks of a good solarpunk story, according to Selena? How does history fit into visions of the future, and what does character have to do with it? Join us as we discuss all this and more.

Links:

Stelliform Press website

Depart! Depart! by Sim Kern

Another Life by Sarena Ulibarri

Green Fuse Burning by Tiffany Morris

The House of Drought by Dennis Mombauer

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How Dare Solarpunks Do OUTRAGE?!!! Ariel & Christina Discuss

Mon, 09 Sep 2024 12:00:59 GMT

Now streaming: some hot takes from your solarpunk aunties. Ariel and Christina consider why wallowing in negative feelings is just so delicious ... as opposed to wallowing in, you know, acts of kindness and feelings of compassion, which are just a bit more solarpunk. We live in an age of outrage, it seems: cancelling, social media mobbing, cyberbullying ... but also drawing attention to human rights violations, or dodgy political happenings, or just straight-up illegal goings-on! How can we tell whether our outrage is justified or not? How can we avoid emotional manipulation? Can we think of outrage as a solarpunk tool?

Links:

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The Us vs Them of Community: Ariel & Christina Discuss

Mon, 05 Aug 2024 12:00:45 GMT

On some very serious level, it’s just not solarpunk if it’s not about a community taking action to make the world a better place. Individualism: it’s just so wrong. It’s fair to say that, not just in solarpunk, but in our cultures, “community” is right up there with “children” as an idea of something inherently good, moral, and wonderful. Community is worshiped as an answer to our problems. But Christina gets a sinking feeling every time she reads a solarpunk story that idolizes community.

In this episode, Christina tries to figure out why she’s so suspicious of community and so afraid of being suffocated by the rules, regulations, and norms of community. Join us for our Season 5 closer in which she and Ariel peek at community’s darker sides, like infighting, conformity, the potential for ostracizing people who don’t conform, and the fact that the existence of a community automatically creates a them.

Links: https://www.newyorker.com/news/on-religion/losing-a-beloved-community

Important announcement: We will be going on a short break for August, but stay tuned for season six in September!

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S5E9: Finding New Life in Old Tech, With Michael DeLuca

Mon, 22 Jul 2024 14:00:15 GMT

Join us for the final interview of this season, as we talk with Michael DeLuca, publisher of Reckoning, a yearly journal of creative writing on environmental justice, and author of The Jaguar Mask. Michael, impressed by the creative uses of cast off technology in the Global South, would like us to also adopt old tech. He recommends that we follow their lead and adapt old tech to suit our needs, as well as find creative new uses for old tech. We should do better than just be passive consumers of the tech that is sold to us more to the needs and convenience of the companies that produce it than to ours.

You can follow Michael via his website (mossyskull.com), Mastodon (@MichaelJDeLuca@climatejustice.social), and Bluesky and X (@michaeljdeluca).

Here are some links relevant to our discussion...

...about the hand-cranked laptop

...concerning the (reindeer) who ate all the food on the island

...regarding a degrowth strategy to reach net zero carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere

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Tech and the Global South with Star Ngei

Mon, 08 Jul 2024 12:00:02 GMT

In this episode, Christina talks with Star Ngei, a maker/hacker who helps raise awareness of Global South technology and innovation through the NGO Global Innovation Gathering (GIG), which hosts a network of makers and makerspaces throughout the Global South. Although it’s hard to generalize across a space as culturally, politically, economically, and geographically diverse as the Global South, Christina and Star discuss how the access of people in the Global South to tech is limited compared to that of people in the Global North and so they have a more creative, non-linear approach to technology. They’re far more open to modifying a piece (or pieces) of technology to fit their specific needs, rather than just using it as it comes out of the box and merely specifically for its intended use. Christina and Star also talk about climate change and what the Global North can learn from the Global South in terms of dealing with it. Lastly, they talk about building community and how, if you’re interested in working to decrease global inequality by helping people in the Global South, the best place to start is by striking up a relationship with a community there first. Unless you want your efforts to be a waste of your time, their time, and resources, don’t just give a group of people in the Global South what you think they need, find out what they think they would find useful.

To join, support, or learn more about Global Innovation Gathering, check out https://globalinnovationgathering.org/

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Building Dual Power, with Andre Rosario [aka HydroponicTrash]

Mon, 24 Jun 2024 14:00:52 GMT

André Rosario (aka HydroponicTrash) joins us this week on the podcast to tell Ariel all about dual power - what it is, how it fits in with solarpunk, and how people can mobilize it in their daily lives. Their conversation ranges from the history of the term dual power, to examples from André’s own life, to the concept of mutual aid, the importance of imagining a better world, how to build relationships as an introvert, and even includes a discussion of human nature.

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Low Carbon Methods for Doing and Communicating Research With Dr Anne Pasek

Mon, 10 Jun 2024 12:00:04 GMT

This episode’s guest is Dr Anne Pasek, Canada Research Chair in Media, Culture, and Environment, and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cultural Studies and the School of the Environment at Trent University. Dr Pasek is co-founder of the Low Carbon Research Methods Group, and she talks to Ariel all about what Low Carbon Research is (and can look like!), the “carbon footprint” of academic research, new innovative ways for research to respond to the climate crisis, the importance of zines, and even hosting her own solar server in her backyard!

Links:

Dr Pasek’s personal website

Low Carbon Research Methods

EMM LAB

Solar Protocol

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Tech and the Power of Solarpunk Narratives, with Paweł Ngei

Mon, 27 May 2024 14:00:52 GMT

In this episode, Christina talks with hacker and enthusiastic solarpunk Paweł Ngei about the power of solarpunk narratives to open our eyes to the ways in which we do things and invite us to critically examine them. Why is tech built this way? Who are we disenfranchising by not having more or different designs for things? Who are we handing over too much power over our lives to mindlessly letting them thrust their tech into our lives without us knowing how it works?

For more info about and thoughts from Paweł, can check out his blog (https://alxd.org/), be inspired by his podcast (https://podcast.tomasino.org/@SolarpunkPrompts), read his short story about a disabled inventor at https://glider.ink/, or read his review of Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future (https://alxd.org/ministry-for-the-future-review.html#ministry-for-the-future-review). Other links Paweł recommends are about the book A Half Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys and to a great solarpunk engineering wiki.

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Behind the Scenes with the Solarpunk Conference Organizers

Mon, 13 May 2024 12:00:03 GMT

In 2023, the inaugural Solarpunk Conference was held in virtual space, bringing together over 150 attendees, 18 presenters, and creating a palpable sense of the solarpunk community. This episode, Ariel chats with conference organizers Charles Valsechi, Lindsay Jane, and Kees Schuller about the genesis of the conference, the inspiration for its theme, as well as a little preview of what they are hoping to see at the 2024 Solarpunk Conference: Rays of Resilience.

You can go to https://www.solarpunkconference.com/ to check out The Solarpunk Conference, access The Solarpunk Conference Journal, and buy tickets. You can also check out the channel on YouTube for recordings of last year’s presentations, and stop by Lindsay Jane's channel @TheSolarpunkScene for more solarpunky content!

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Solarpunk, Lunarpunk, Crypto, & Web3

Mon, 29 Apr 2024 14:00:55 GMT

In Season 5 Episode 3 of Solarpunk Presents, Christina chats with transdisciplinary technologist Stephen Reid about relationship solarpunk and lunarpunk have to crypto and web3. If lunarpunk is what solarpunk gets up to in the shadows of a moonlit night, that suggests that lunarpunk is inherently more interested in privacy, security, and anonymity, especially from the watchful eye of the state. That would further mean that where solarpunk is interested in renewable energy, sustainability, appropriate technology, and social justice, lunarpunk is interested in the tools, like cryptography, cryptocurrencies, and web3, that safeguard our privacy and anonymity and potentially protect us from tyranny. Do we need lunarpunk’s fixation with using tech to protect our privacy to counterbalance solarpunk’s sunny optimism that everything will all be fine to break through to a better world?

To learn more about Stephen, his philosophies, and his work, check out https://stephenreid.net/

Disclaimer: Neither Christina, Ariel, nor the Solarpunk Presents podcast agree with nor support the use of cryptocurrencies or web3. For sound critiques of these technologies, check out the videos The Line Goes Up - The Problem With NFTs and Web3.0: A Libertarian Dystopia and the website https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/.

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Podcasting Dreams of the Solacene

Mon, 15 Apr 2024 13:59:23 GMT

In this podcast, host Ariel has a chat with Aaron and Alicia, the team behind Solacene podcast in Montreal, Canada. They talk about the meaning of “Solacene”, their goals, the semester-structure of their show, zines, community, upcycled clothing, embodied reality, environmental positivity, and a sneak peek at what is next for Solacene in the future… just to name a few topics. Tune in on your favourite podcatcher or streaming service today!

Links:

Solacene YouTube: https://youtube.com/@solacene?si=iyP9ae71VypNQ-SZ

Website: https://solacene.bigcartel.com/

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Let's Talk Tech, Solarpunks! With Ariel & Christina

Mon, 01 Apr 2024 13:57:36 GMT

If tech wasn’t such a central aspect of solarpunk, we’d all just be hippies redux. Yet not all tech, right? Because solarpunk is also about living the good life while building a just, inclusive, and sustainable society. So, what is solarpunk’s attitude toward and relationship with tech? How do solarpunks decide what’s worth it and what’s beyond the pale? And what’s all this about appropriate technology?

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What Does the Punk in Solarpunk Even Mean? Ariel & Christina Discuss

Mon, 18 Mar 2024 14:35:44 GMT

Why is solarpunk called solarPUNK? What is so punk about it, and does it have anything to do with the original meaning of punk… or cyberpunk, or steampunk, or any -punk for that matter?

In this episode, Christina and Ariel dive into the thorny question of what exactly it is that they are talking about when they say “solarpunk” … because as it turns out, they both have very different points of reference. Neither Christina’s Gen-Xer ideas of the ‘80s punk-rocker or Ariel’s Millennial idea of the Hot Topic pop-punk fit in with solarpunk… or do they? Tune in to find out more!

Links:

A Solarpunk Manifesto

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The Fantasies of Post-apocalyptic Dystopian Fiction, with Ariel Kroon

Mon, 04 Mar 2024 09:19:47 GMT

Classic, post-apocalyptic, dystopian fiction is a type of fantasy where we’re dreaming of starting over in an empty landscape from a societal and cultural slate wiped clean by some devastating event that we don’t have to feel guilty about having happened—at least, it is according to our very own Ariel Kroon, who does, yes, have a PhD in it.* Yet, at the same time, these fantasies generally suffer from a strange lack of imagination, wherein the characters use the “fresh new start” to recreate the same old society, albeit with themselves at the top, with the same old systemic socioeconomic, environmental, and structural problems.

It’s almost as if it is easy to dream up apocalypse but next to impossible to envision a different way of living. Although a failure of imagination would most likely look different for solarpunk, can solarpunk creators and dreamers of a positive future avoid falling into the same sort of trap?

*Post-apocalyptic Canadian science-fiction 1948-1989, she wants to clarify. She’s even got the thesis to prove it.

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Easing the Housing Crisis By Saying Yes, in My Backyard

Mon, 19 Feb 2024 09:06:08 GMT

You’ve heard of NIMBYs and NIMBYism, and you probably are living with the consequences of neighbourhood planning or city policies influenced by landowners who say “Not in My Backyard” to new developments planned in their area. But what about YIMBYs? The name might be strange, but the homeowners who make up these groups say “Yes In My Backyard” to normalize the goals of affordable housing advocates, transit planning, tenants’ rights organizations and others who are working towards making the city a more liveable place to be for everyone.

Today on the podcast, Ariel talks to Melissa Bowman, cofounder of the group Waterloo Region Yes In My Backyard (WRYIMBY) about what a YIMBY group is, what some actions are that it might take, the issues that it might address, and how to start up a YIMBY group in your area, if there’s not one already!

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Creating Community While Regenerating Soil, with Nick Schwanz of Solarpunk Farms

Mon, 05 Feb 2024 09:02:55 GMT

Taking action on their solarpunk dreams, Nick Schwanz and Spencer Scott bought a degraded agricultural plot and have been turning it into a food forest, an explosion of flowers, and a demonstration of regenerative farming that brings the local community together and creates a network of prosperity and opportunities for other farmers, creatives, and makers. Join us as we talk soils, how their project is going, and what they mean by their intention to queer the agricultural endeavor.

For all the fun and their latest news, follow Solarpunk Farms on their Instagram @solarpunkfarms.

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On Solarpunk Spirituality (& Humanity's Intangible Squishy Bits) with Navarre Bartz

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 13:00:50 GMT

Today Ariel sits down with Navarre Bartz to talk about solarpunk spirituality. Solarpunk’s emphasis on respecting and valuing human and non-human life includes the totality of a being’s existence, and that includes the “squishy bits” of the experience that we can’t quite quantify. Navarre recently hosted a series of guest posts on his blog, Solarpunk Station, all about the spiritual angle of solarpunk, and what a solarpunk style of spirituality might look like.

Read more:

Solarpunk Station
Episode 1.1 “Must Solarpunk Should?”
artisans.coop Etsy alternative!

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Scientists Tell Stories Too (and That's a Good Thing), with Prof. Jenni Barclay

Mon, 08 Jan 2024 13:01:55 GMT

In this episode, Prof. Jenni Barclay explains the importance of storytelling by scientists to themselves, other scientists, and the general public.

Has that got you thinking, hey, wait, WHAT?! Everyone knows that scientists should never tell stories! If we expect them to show up like Back off man, I’m a scientist! and guide us through difficulties, then they’d best stick strictly and dryly to the facts, because everyone knows that scientists should never tell stories, right? But scientists even need to tell stories to themselves and to each other to more effectively process the information contained in their data, observations, and experiences. Human beings are not computers: we need stories to grasp the meanings of things, and that also goes for scientific facts. This means scientists need to be storytellers, too, if they want people to understand not just what the facts are, but what they mean for society and the world at large. Then people would better be able to see what our options are for responding to environmental and technological developments and emergencies.

Learn more about Jenni and her research on volcanoes and scientists here https://research-portal.uea.ac.uk/en/persons/jenni-barclay or follow her on social media at @volcanojenni on xitter and bluesky.

Support Solarpunk Presents on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/solarpunkpresents

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Perfect Storm: Roleplaying Your Way Into Understanding the Forces For and Against Climate Action, With Dr. Sourayan Mookerjea

Mon, 25 Dec 2023 07:00:06 GMT

On today’s episode, we’re talking about board games! Ariel interviews Dr Sourayan Mookerjea, Professor of sociology at University of Alberta, about the game “Perfect Storm”, which he uses in his classes and beyond to teach players about the complexities of a sustainable energy transition in the province of Alberta, and Canada more widely. We talk about the different meanings of “energy”, green capitalism, degrowth, decommodifying housing, and more!

Links:

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The Radical Democratizing Power of a Better Way to Make Things, With Sarah Hutton

Mon, 11 Dec 2023 13:00:47 GMT

Have the inhumanity and environmental destructiveness of global supply chains got you down? What about the rapaciousness of multinational corporations who have twisted globalization into a nightmare for so many people on Earth? Here’s one thing you can do about it: you can support the growing movement known as distributed production. In Episode 3 of Season 4, researcher Sarah Hutton of the Internet of Production Alliance explains what distributed production is, why it’s all about people power, and exactly why it is a completely radical and powerfully democratizing activity that is also better for local jobs, local communities, and the environment.

Join the Internet of Production Alliance’s Community Forum at https://community.internetofproduction.org/

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Solarpunk Considers Cohousing, With Hermina Joldersma

Mon, 27 Nov 2023 13:00:06 GMT

In this episode, Ariel talks to Hermina Joldersma, professor emerita at University of Calgary, about alternative housing arrangements, focusing on co-housing. They discuss not only Hermina’s experiences living in different types of housing, but the mindset necessary to co-housing and communal life, and the way that community often has to be intentionally created. Tune in now!

Links:

Hermina Joldersma’s profile page at University of Calgary
Hermina Joldersma at Fibre Art Network
Urban Green Cohousing
CBC article on Urban Green and co-housing in Canada
CoHo BC official website

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Solarpunking Housing, With Ariel & Christina

Mon, 13 Nov 2023 09:02:37 GMT

In this kick-off of Season 4, Ariel and Christina tackle the topic of housing. It is one of the central imaginings of solarpunk, after all. And it’s something we’re not doing very well in the present.

How could solarpunk expand its dreams of housing beyond the aesthetic and into the realm of the practical? Can solarpunk envision not just greenery and solar-panel-draped dwellings, but housing that would meet people’s needs, not just for shelter, but comfort, mental health, emotional and physical support, ease of access, friendship and community, and culture, while also being affordable to everyone, energy efficient, and not contributing to urban sprawl? It seems like a tall order, but we want to make it a present reality. Tune in as we discuss!

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How to Change Cultural Norms: Ariel and Christina Discuss

Mon, 30 Oct 2023 09:00:06 GMT

Solarpunk’s envisioning of a future that we’d like to live in isn’t just about providing a vision for us to aim for, it’s also about changing cultural norms in the present so that we can actually get to that future. Solarpunk storytelling is in no small part about normalizing the things we want to support and develop, such as sustainability, wild and productive gardens, social justice, and cohesive, supportive communities. On the flip side, solarpunk strives to make taboo or erase completely the attitudes and entire industries that are anti-human and anti-planet; we’re thinking about racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, misogyny, fossil fuels, petrochemical pesticides, overly industrialized agriculture, etc. But, aside from storytelling, how do we change the norms of the cultures that we’re living in at all, much less to be more in line with a solarpunk ethos? Is there a secret sauce that works every time? And if we knew the answer, would we be even having this conversation in the first place? Tune in as we discuss.

Links:

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Bri Castagnozzi of Solarpunk Magazine on Solarpunk, Art, and AI

Mon, 16 Oct 2023 09:00:40 GMT

In this episode, Brianna Castagnozzi, one of the editors-in-chief of Solarpunk Magazine, is here to give up the solarpunk artist’s eye view on solarpunk art and AI; a very different take than the solarpunk hacker’s view given to us by John Threat in season three episode seven. As much as I (Christina) was convinced by John’s advice not to stick your head in the sand but to master the tools of your capitalist overlords, Bri has equally compelling points about not joining into an activity that exploits the work of artists without their consent and without compensating them.

Join us!

You can follow Bri and her art at @mosshawkarts on xitter and Tumblr and at @mosshawk_arts at YouTube and Instagram.

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Protecting the Environment With GIS: Mapping WWII's Sunken Ships with Paul Heersink

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 06:00:10 GMT

This week, Ariel chats with Paul Heersink, cartographer and Program Manager for the Roads and Addresses program at ESRI Canada. Formerly, he was Production Manager of the Community Maps Program: an initiative that is aiming to build a seamless topographic basemap of Canada using contributor data, and the Roads and Addresses program aims to do the same with community-sourced data, building a navigable map of Canada with the most up-to-date information provided by those who know it best.

Paul also personally maintains and updates a map of the sunken battleships (and other naval vessels) that were downed during World War Two. Paul’s map combines two of his interests - cartography and WWII history and, though it started as a passion project outside of work, Paul has been approached by numerous organizations since publishing his data that are very interested in using it to support salvaging and reclamation efforts. The ships have been called “ticking ecological time bombs” as they are carrying crude oil, munitions, and other toxic materials that can leach into the water around them as the hulls degrade. That said, some also contain traditional treasure! Join us for a discussion about the details.

Links:

Paul’s official ESRI bio page.
The ESRI Community Map of Canada
Resurfacing the Past article on Paul’s work from ESRI
Sunken Ships of the Second World War (interactive map)
YouTube video of the animated map
News and other articles featuring Paul’s work.
Uboat.net - The site that kicked off Paul’s curiosity
Documentary on this topic

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Come Play in Solarpunk’s Future Garden, With John Threat

Mon, 18 Sep 2023 07:38:52 GMT

Between September 15 to 24, 2023, you can go be a part of renowned hacktivist, writer/director, and creative futurist John Threat’s Zukunft Garden—a solarpunk future garden—that’s part of Vision2030’s Earth Edition festival at CalArts, in Santa Clarita, near Los Angeles. Join us for this episode, where John talks to Christina about this social art installation, what it means and can signify for participants, and the inspiration behind it. They discuss John's background as a hacker, an activist, a cyberpunk and, most recently, a solarpunk dedicated to thinking outside of the systems of this world.

Stay tuned also for what John has to say about what solarpunk can do with AI art and why we should be engaging with AI technology, rather than ignoring it outright - as John points out, corporations will still be using AI, and it's incumbent on solarpunks to know thy enemy ... or at least, to be able to know enough about new technologies to decide whether or not to use them as tools for community support and envisioning better futures, rather than taking advantage of others.

Useful links:

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Propaganda and Petroturfing with Dr Jordan Kinder

Mon, 04 Sep 2023 09:00:04 GMT

What is petroturfing? What is an energy imaginary? If, as Thomas King says, we are all stories, how can we make sense of which stories are leading us to an understanding of things as they are, rather than misrepresenting reality or persuading us to take a biased view? And what can we do when we learn to critically interpret the world around us? What are some concrete actions we can take as regular folks if we decide that we want to push back against this narrative of “ethical oil” and intervene in the reactionary oil culture war?

Dr Jordan Kinder has spent the last decade of his life thinking about these questions, specifically in the context of the Canadian oil industry and Alberta. The result? His new book Petroturfing: Refining Canadian Oil, which covers these topics and more, forthcoming from University of Minnesota Press in spring 2024. Join Ariel and Jordan to learn about the many competing narratives about (and even by!) Canadian oil and gas—including but not limited to being labelled dirty oil, ethical oil, one of the world’s leading polluters, an underdog industry under attack, a Canadian success story, the ball and chain around Canada’s neck as it tries to avert climate catastrophe, and the list goes on…

References:

Just Powers
Petrocultures Research Group
Solarities
Energy Humanities
Kinder, Jordan “Mystifying Oil Today” for Heliotrope
Kinder, Jordan “Tailings, Unconventional: Sedimented Horizons for More Equitable Energy Futures” for Against Catastrophe

Socials:

Connect with Jordan at jbkinder.github.io

Connect with Solarpunk Presents Podcast on Twitter, Mastodon, or at solarpunkpresents.com.

Support the show on Patreon or make a one-time donation via PayPal.

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Birdwatching as a Gateway to Environmental Activism: A Conversation With Prof. Cin-Ty Lee

Mon, 21 Aug 2023 09:00:11 GMT

Birdwatchers. They’re both easy to envy (They know so much!) and laugh at (What nerds!). Yet birdwatching is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to connect with nature. Yes, as we discuss with Cin-Ty Lee, professor of geology at Rice University in Texas and author of the Field Guide to North American Flycatchers: Empidonax and Pewees, you could go buy all the books and gear and then book trips all over the world to start checking off boxes on your life list. Or you could just sit and watch out the window at whatever birds are out there where you live. All birds are interesting!

And, as Christina and Prof. Lee discuss in this episode, watching them is habit-forming in a way that makes people of all political stripes want to start protecting their habitats. This doesn’t need to mean lying down in front of tractors. Instead, it could mean working to improve small patches of nature within cities and in your own backyard to make them better for birds and the plants and insects the birds need to thrive. Before you know it, you’ll be heading up neighborhood or citywide initiatives to better the spaces around you for the sake of the birds.

Socials:

You can find Cin-Ty Lee at @CinTyLeeEarth on Twitter, at @cintylee on Instagram, and at http://www.cintylee.org/. Or check out his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/cintylee.

Connect with Solarpunk Presents Podcast on Twitter, Mastodon, or at our blog.

Support the show on Patreon or make a one-time donation via PayPal.

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Capitalism, Community, and Friendship with Joey Ayoub

Mon, 07 Aug 2023 08:43:31 GMT

Why is it easier to imagine a zombie apocalypse than it is a generative, sustainable future? This question drives Joey Ayoub, host of The Fire These Times: in fact, this season of his pod is partially about solarpunk and generative futures. Tune in today to listen to Ariel and Joey discussing imaginative expansion of solarpunk, the “realist” impulse, climate anxiety and grief, and community building in a crisis. Also The Office. Trust us, it’s an important part of this whole conversation.

In this episode, Ariel speaks with Joey Ayoub, host of The Fire These Times podcast and someone who’s been focusing his podcasting and thinking on solarpunk quite a bit in the last while. Joey is a Lebanese writer, researcher, scholar, editor and podcaster currently based in Switzerland since 2020. He is a research associate at the Center for Social Sciences Research and Action and a member of Sustainability Transitions Research Network (STRN), and Degrowth Switzerland, to name just a few organizations he is involved with, and he has been published in more places than I can list here. Join us for this thought-provoking and entertaining conversation.

Links/References:

SP episode 2.3 on Beirut and the history of Lebanon with JD Harlock
SP episode 1.4 on climate grief and chaplaincy with Gabrielle Gelderman
Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher
A Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit

Socials:

Check out The Fire These Times website, as well as Joey’s personal site, and connect with him on Twitter, Instagram, and Mastodon.

Connect with Solarpunk Presents Podcast on Twitter, Mastodon, or at our blog.

Support the show on Patreon or make a one-time donation via PayPal.

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Carbon Capture and Storage with Prof Mike Bickle

Mon, 24 Jul 2023 09:00:03 GMT

Conquering climate change for our survival and that of much of the rest of the biosphere calls for more than attaining net zero emissions of greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere. We also need to actively remove much of the 140 extra parts per million of carbon dioxide currently up there in the atmosphere thanks to our burning of fossil fuels and destruction of so much of Earth’s biosphere. Both attaining net zero and going beyond it will take carbon capture and storage. This means capturing carbon dioxide from power plants and other point sources and from our agricultural activities before it gets into the atmosphere, as well as capturing carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere. Then, we need to store that carbon somewhere safely away from the atmosphere for at least a few thousand years.

Join us for this episode of Solarpunk Presents, in which Christina talks to Dr. Mike Bickle, professor emeritus at the Earth Sciences Department at the University of Cambridge. We’ll be discussing what methods for carbon capture and storage are the most promising (and the most likely for us to engage in), what some of the dangers are, what it would take to deploy carbon capture and storage at the scale required, and how long it might take us to bring an end to the global warming we’ve created.

Links:

Support the show on Patreon or make a one-time donation via PayPal.

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Thinking About How We Think About Animals with Dr Chloë Taylor

Mon, 10 Jul 2023 09:00:50 GMT

Today’s episode is all about animal ethics—or do we mean critical animal studies? Ariel discusses this linguistic nuance and the difference between them (and much, much more!) with Dr Chloë Taylor, professor of women and gender studies at the University of Alberta. Dr Taylor has been involved in a five-year-long project researching the “Intersections of Animality” and is a trained philosopher who works in gender studies, and sees a lot of intersections between the way that we think about and treat animals and the way that we think about and treat minoritized subjects. Come join us for a thought-provoking and highly educational discussion!

Links

Dr Chloë Taylor’s profile at University of Alberta
Peter Singer and Tom Regan
North American Association for Critical Animal Studies
Where Disability Rights and Animal Rights Meet: A Conversation with Sunaura Taylor
Making Kin: An Interview with Donna Haraway
Auroch de-extinction and rewilding

Connect with Solarpunk Presents Podcast on Twitter, Mastodon, or at our blog.

Connect with Ariel at her blog, on Twitter at @arielletje, and on Mastodon.

Connect with Christina at her blog, on Twitter, and on Mastodon

Support the show on Patreon or make a one-time donation via PayPal.

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50 Shades of Solarpunk

Mon, 19 Jun 2023 09:00:35 GMT

Ariel and Christina open Season 3 with a chat about what solarpunk, or, at least this solarpunk podcast, is setting out to achieve… according to how Ariel sees it. With her occasionally curmudgeonly devil’s advocacy, Christina provides the nuance we need as we push through topics, including the definition of solarpunk in a time of slippery postmodern language (that, in true solarpunk fashion, changes according to cultural context and locale), the Anthropocene and its multiple issues, mix-tape metaphors, Ursula K LeGuin’s Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, aesthetics (of course), infrastructure as resistance, and a liiiiittle bit of academic theory.

Join us!

Links

Almanac for the Anthropocene
"Solarpunk: A Container for More Fertile Futures" by Jay Springett in Solarpunk Magazine
Listen to Season 1 here!
Listen to Season 2 here!
The Solarpunk Presents Pinterest has examples of solarpunk aesthetics we dig.
Cruising Utopia by José Esteban Muñoz
Posthuman feminism definition
Postmodern linguistics / language plus a more philosophical definition of postmodernism

Connect with Solarpunk Presents Podcast on Twitter, Mastodon, or at our blog.

Connect with Ariel at her blog, on Twitter at @arielletje, and on Mastodon.

Connect with Christina at her blog, on Twitter, and on Mastodon

Support the show on Patreon or make a one-time donation via PayPal.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ecofascism and Rewilding: A Conversation With Ariel Kroon and Christina De La Rocha

Mon, 22 May 2023 17:44:07 GMT

There’s no question that the biosphere is in crisis right now thanks to human-driven global warming, our hostile takeover of most of Earth’s land area, and our pollution and overfishing of the seas. Slowing down—never mind outright stopping—the collapse of the Earth’s ecosystems and the mass extinction currently gaining pace calls for aggressively protecting the environment, or possibly even giving half of the Earth’s land surface back to nature in a process known as rewilding.

But how will we manage to share the Earth with the rest of the biosphere when history shows that we’re pretty terrible at sharing it with each other, with some states even going so far as to have used the preservation of wilderness as a tool of genocide and white supremacy? There are still those who would use environmental protection as an excuse to block immigrants, reject refugees, and expel “undesirable” people from the land. What will it take to value human and non-human life and the land all equally, without using one as an excuse to persecute the other?

Getting urgently-needed environmental protection and rewilding right requires facing the evils that have been historically committed in the name of conservation, so that we don’t repeat those grave mistakes, even with the best of intentions. As solarpunks, we need to learn from the past in order to shape futures that are intentionally better than our pasts and presents.

And that’s a wrap for season 2! Season 3 will be coming along in the last week of June for Patreon supporters, and to the public in the first week of July. Until then, keep dreaming, and keep up the good work!

Links

Reframing Narratives with Ecocriticism, with Dr Jenny Kerber
Against the Ecofascist Creep webzine teaching resource and explainer
Read about the 100-Mile Diet book and phenomenon on Wikipedia
Read about the locavore movement on Wikipedia
A great article on philosophical questions with The Sneetches from the Prindle Institute for Ethics
Some articles on food forests
The Half-Earth Project

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Reframing Narratives With Ecocriticism, With Dr Jenny Kerber

Mon, 08 May 2023 05:26:41 GMT

In this episode, Ariel discusses the topic of ecocriticism with Dr Jenny Kerber, Associate Professor of English at Wilfrid Laurier University.

What is ecocriticism? Why is it important, especially for environmental activists and solarpunks, as a narrative reframing device? Solarpunks work very closely with speculation and imagination and as architects of the narratives by which we live our lives, it helps to have tools like ecocriticism at our disposal.

Join Ariel and Dr. Kerber to think through terms like “wilderness” and “nature” and “the Anthropocene”. How do we hold on to hope, despite critical engagement with the dark side of our environmental narratives?

References:

● A bit more about the WLU Land Acknowledgement

● Dr Kerber’s profile at Wilfrid Laurier U

● “The Trouble with Wilderness” by William Cronon

● Elizabeth May

● Kerber, Jenny. "Tracing One Warm Line: Climate Stories and Silences in Northwest Passage Tourism." Journal of Canadian Studies 55.4 (July 2022): 271-303.

● Timothy Clark, The Cambridge Introduction to Literature and the Environment

● Kate Soper, What is Nature? Culture, Politics and the Non-Human

● David Huebert's Chemical Valley

● Lord Byron's "Darkness"

● Don McKay, Vis à Vis: Field Notes on Poetry and Wilderness

● Amitav Ghosh, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable

● Nicole Seymour, Bad Environmentalism: Irony and Irreverence in the Ecological Age

● Phoebe Wagner and Brontë Christopher Wieland, Almanac for the Anthropocene: A Compendium of Solarpunk Futures

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50 Million Years of Climate Change with Dr Christina De La Rocha

Mon, 24 Apr 2023 05:54:37 GMT

Have you ever thought about how dinosaurs lived on a warm, swampy Earth and how we live on one that’s cold enough to keep pretty much the entirety of Greenland and Antarctica buried under kilometers-thick sheets of solid ice and wondered, hmm, how did we get from there to here? The short answer is that it took 50 million years of declining atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and dropping temperatures, not to mention building an ice sheet or two. For the longer story of the last 50 million years of climate change, including some of the reasons why, catch this episode of our podcast with Dr De La Rocha! You’ll hear about plate tectonics and continental drift, silicate weathering, carbonate sedimentation, and the spectacular effects the growth of Earth’s ice sheets have had on Earth’s climate. There are also lessons here for where anthropogenic global warming is going and whether or not its effects have permanently disrupted the climate system. Fun fact: the total amount of climate change between 50 million years ago and now dwarfs what we’re driving by burning fossil fuels, and yet, what we’re doing is more terrifying, in that it’s unfolding millions of times faster.

Bonus content: If you want to see sketches and plots of the data discussed in this episode, you can do so here!

!!Nerd alert!!

If you're interested in the primary scientific literature on the subject, these four papers are a great place to start.

Connect with Christina at her blog and on Mastodon

Support the show on Patreon or make a one-time donation via PayPal.

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Science and Christianity: Is There a Conflict? With Norm Nelson

Mon, 10 Apr 2023 05:31:48 GMT

Although the battle lines have shifted down through the years from heliocentrism to evolution (and let’s not get started on the age of the Earth), it feels like there’s a fundamental conflict between science and religion, especially with respect to the Abrahamic religions like Christianity and Islam. I (Christina), the host of this podcast episode, as a scientist and atheist who tends to assume all scientists are atheists—because how could they not be?—am definitely guilty of thinking this.

Yet, there is a long tradition of curiosity, inquiry, and, yes, science within the Abrahamic religions and no shortage of devout scientists working hard to this day to understand the workings of the world and cosmos. I decided that it was time to confront my assumptions by talking to one of my religious colleagues. Thank you in advance to Dr Norm Nelson—an oceanographer whose Christianity is a core part of his life—for discussing whether or not there is a conflict between science and Christianity, and where the roots of that conflict might lie.

Don’t forget, dear listener, we need your support! So, recommend us to a friend and/or sign up for our Patreon or make a one-time donation via PayPal.

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Gentle Gardening on Limited Spoons with Erin Alladin

Mon, 27 Mar 2023 06:02:07 GMT

Erin Alladin’s new e-book “Gentle Gardening: A Guide for Uncooperative Bodies” is transformative, specifically covering the issues of gardening with chronic fatigue and the other complex disabilities that can accompany it, and reframing gardening as an accessible and fun activity. Ariel talks to Erin in this episode about her journey with gardening to where she is now, the book, a bit about gardening on Turtle Island as a settler, and tackling the gardener’s mindset and impostor syndrome that may come with it.

References:

Native Land’s resource on what land acknowledgements are and why they are important, plus linked articles contextualizing and foregrounding Indigenous scholars’ and activists’ support and critiques of the practice
Spoon theory
North Bay and Parry Sound
Erin’s post on chronic pain and permaculture principles is an excellent companion to Gentle Gardening.

You can visit Erin’s blog at EarthUndaunted.com to learn more, and check out GENTLE GARDENING: A GUIDE FOR UNCOOPERATIVE BODIES. You can connect with her at TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram @ErinAlladin.

Connect with Solarpunk Presents Podcast on Twitter, Mastodon, or at our blog.

Connect with Ariel at her blog, on Twitter at @arielletje, and on Mastodon.

Connect with Christina at her blog, on Twitter, and on Mastodon

Support the show on Patreon or make a one-time donation via PayPal.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Creating a Solarpunk Society in the Big City with Lindsay Jane

Mon, 13 Mar 2023 07:07:56 GMT

On today’s episode, Ariel talks to Lindsay Jane of The Solarpunk Scene, where she showcases her solarpunk life in Toronto, as well as shining a spotlight on solarpunk projects locally and internationally. Lindsay tells us about how she discovered solarpunk and the ways that she lives a solarpunk life in the city - both the upsides (gardens! architecture! effective transit!) and the downsides (sky-high rent, expensive food, difficulty cultivating outdoor gardens). She also emphasizes the importance of getting involved in your local community and politics as a city-dweller, and lets listeners in on the behind-the-scenes inspiration for The Solarpunk Scene: tune in to learn more!

Links

Socials

Check out The Solarpunk Scene website, YouTube (+ stream channel!), plus Patreon, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitch.

Connect with Solarpunk Presents Podcast on Twitter, Mastodon, or at our blog.

Support the show on Patreon or make a one-time donation via PayPal.

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Solarpunk Music to Inspire Action with Thomas Cannon

Mon, 20 Feb 2023 11:00:06 GMT

On today’s episode, Ariel talks with Thomas Cannon about solarpunk music and his new album MESH NETWORK. What was the inspiration behind this work of solarpunk ambient music? What is solarpunk music, anyway, and how can it help us today to create the just, sustainable, and equitable future that we all want to live in? Join us for a discussion of the album tracks, artwork, instruments, the process of collaborative music-making, and more.

References:

AlexisNicole / @blackforager on Instagram’s post on culturally-specific consumption of meat and veganism:
Food prices in Canadian north articles.
Country food definition from the Canadian Encyclopedia.

You can stream or buy MESH NETWORK at Bandcamp.com; bundled with the album purchase are the liner notes for each track as well as a beautiful art book.

EXCLUSIVE: Solarpunk Presents podcast listeners can get 50% off at checkout with the code “solarpunkpresents”

You can find and follow Thomas Cannon on his Bandcamp profile and at his personal website, thomascannon.me

Connect with Solarpunk Presents Podcast on Twitter @SolarpunkP, Mastodon @solarpunkpresents @climatejustice .rocks, or at our blog https://solarpunkpresents.com/

Connect with Ariel at her blog, on Twitter at @arielletje, and on Mastodon @arielkroon@wandering.shop

Connect with Christina at her blog, on Twitter @xtinadlr, and on Mastodon @xtinadlr@wandering.shop

Support the show on Patreon or make a one-time donation via PayPal.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Beirut: Finding Your Future in a Nearly Failed State, With JD Harlock

Mon, 13 Feb 2023 06:19:28 GMT

The situation in Lebanon today is bleak. Carved out of the remains of the Ottoman Empire and subjected to years of colonialism-lite administration by France, its economy and infrastructure have been devastated by a long civil war, overlapping occupations by Syria and Israel, and corruption on a massive scale. Since 2019, Lebanon has been in the midst of a severe financial crisis, with widespread unemployment and hyperinflation. Now 80% of the population is poor and Lebanon is on the brink of becoming a failed state.

And yet, JD Harlock, Poetry Editor at Solarpunk Magazine, who lives in Beirut, believes in solarpunk. Join us for this episode to find out how that can be and what day to day life is like in Beirut right now.

You can find JD on Twitter and Instagram at @JD_Harlock.

#Lebanon #EconomicCrisis #Solarpunk

Connect with Solarpunk Presents Podcast on Twitter @SolarpunkP, Mastodon @solarpunkpresents @climatejustice .rocks, or at our blog https://solarpunkpresents.com/

Connect with Ariel at her blog, on Twitter at @arielletje, and on Mastodon @arielkroon@wandering.shop

Connect with Christina at her blog, on Twitter @xtinadlr, and on Mastodon @xtinadlr@wandering.shop

Support the show on Patreon or make a one-time donation via PayPal.

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Libraries: A Community Endeavor, With Don Gardner

Sun, 29 Jan 2023 23:00:15 GMT

Is there anything more solarpunk than public libraries? Serving at the heart of communities, they’re a place where anyone regardless of income, ability, race, class, or gender can go to read books, listen to music, use the internet, learn things, hear story hour, get out of the weather for a while, and ask librarians for information on just about anything, including what organizations to turn to for additional support in your life or endeavor. In Episode 2 of Season 2 of Solarpunk Presents, Christina talks to Don Gardner, a librarian for many years for the Salinas Public Libraries in Monterey County, California. Hear about how people rescued the library after the city council tried to close it down to save money, about what libraries can do for you and your community, and about what you can do for your local library.

Check out Salinas Public Libraries at https://salinaspubliclibrary.org/ and connect with them @salinaslibrary on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, or @salinaspubliclibrary on Instagram and TikTok.

Connect with Solarpunk Presents Podcast on Mastodon @solarpunkpresents @climatejustice .rocks, or at our blog https://solarpunkpresents.com/

Connect with Ariel at her blog and on Mastodon @arielkroon@wandering.shop

Connect with Christina at her blog, on Twitter @xtinadlr, and on Mastodon @xtinadlr@wandering.shop

Support the show on Patreon or make a one-time donation via PayPal.

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Urban Versus Rural Solarpunk: Ariel & Christina Discuss

Sun, 15 Jan 2023 23:00:12 GMT

Does solarpunk dream utopic dreams of clean, just, green cities that are great places to live in vibrant communities with other people? Or is solarpunk about getting back to the land, having your own chickens, being self-sufficient, and helping out your neighbors? City dweller Ariel, who dreams of life in the countryside, and countryside dweller Christina, who sees the advantages of city life, consider the pros and cons of trying to live urban versus rural solarpunk lives.

Here are links to some of the literature we discussed:

https://www.williamcronon.net/writing/Trouble_with_Wilderness_Main.html

https://archive.org/details/boston-hearth-project-by-tjwatson/mode/2up?view=theater

Connect with Solarpunk Presents Podcast on Twitter @SolarpunkP or Mastodon @solarpunkpresents@climatejustice.rocks or solarpunkpresents.com

Connect with Ariel at her blog, on Twitter at @arielletje, and on Mastodon @arielkroon@wandering.shop

Connect with Christina at her blog, on Twitter @xtinadlr, and on Mastodon @xtinadlr@wandering.shop

Support the show on Patreon or make a one-time donation via PayPal.

Ariel's note: this is a constructed debate, and not necessarily reflective of the opinions of all solarpunks everywhere, but a debate that Christina and I see fairly often in solarpunk spaces, so we wanted to duke it out in a fun and engaging way to provoke thought.

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Let's Talk Solstice, Solarpunks! -- with Ariel & Christina

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 07:58:27 GMT

In the finale of Solarpunk Presents' first-ever season, Ariel and Christina sit down to chat together about the Winter Solstice - Christina brings the scientific knowledge, Ariel brings a few book recommendations, and we discuss traditions of celebrating the return of the sun (as we've experienced them in the northern hemisphere). What are your favourite solstice traditions? Do you have recommendations of good solarpunk solstice stories to cozy up with?

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Building Climate Resilience in the Western US, with Prof. Lisa Dilling

Mon, 12 Dec 2022 12:36:21 GMT

As the changing climate increasingly disrupts our ways of life, we have three choices: do nothing, attempt to stop or even reverse climate change, and/or figure out how to withstand it. Option one is a terrible idea and the ship has (mostly) sailed on option two. But option three is how we learn to live—and maybe even thrive—in our changing world. Part of this is figuring out how to convey the information that climate researchers have gathered to the people—like farmers, water managers, and urban planners—who need to make decisions now—about things like what crops to plant, where to get water for everyone and how to allocate it, and where to plant trees—for both the near and slightly distant future. In this episode, we’re talking to Professor Lisa Dilling, of the University of Colorado, Boulder, about building networks of people through which information about regional climate predictions can flow to people and information about the needs, predicaments, and questions of people can flow to climate researchers.

You can follow Lisa Dilling on Twitter at @LisaD144, and the Western Water Assessment program at University of Colorado here: @WWAnews or visit their website at https://wwa.colorado.edu/

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Shining Bright in the Heart of Oil Country, With Heather MacKenzie of Solar Alberta

Mon, 28 Nov 2022 21:35:34 GMT

In today’s episode, Ariel chats with Heather MacKenzie, Executive Director of Solar Alberta, about transitioning to renewable energy deep in the heart of oil and gas country - in a just and sustainable way. Join us to learn about the history of the Solar Alberta organization, from its grassroots beginnings in neighbourhood solar projects, to dealing with (government-funded!) trolls online, all the way up to being the leading non-profit solar organization in Alberta and providing worker upskilling in a unique market.

You can go to https://solaralberta.ca to learn more, or connect with and follow them on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

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Bioluminescence: The Soft Glow of the Deep Sea, With Dr Steve Haddock

Mon, 14 Nov 2022 01:55:09 GMT

You don't have to be a solarpunk—or a lunarpunk—to dream of bioluminescence, from twinkling phytoplankton to glowing lamps, phosphorescent fungi, and jellyfish lit up like space ships. To honor those dreams, we talked to Dr. Steve Haddock, Senior Scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) and leading expert on the things that glow, flash, and train headlights through the dark waters of the deep sea. Join us for this conversation about how bioluminescence works, what critters are capable of it and what they use it for, and whether or not our visions of bioluminescent street lamps stand a chance of coming true.

You can also follow Steve Haddock on Twitter @beroe and learn more about bioluminescence at https://biolum.eemb.ucsb.edu/.

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Talking About "Bioluminescent: A Lunarpunk Anthology", With Justine Norton-Kertson

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 20:13:39 GMT

On this episode, Ariel sits down with Justine Norton-Kertson, editor of the forthcoming BIOLUMINESCENT: A LUNARPUNK ANTHOLOGY. They discuss what lunarpunk is in contrast to solarpunk, what inspired Justine to put together an anthology of lunarpunk fiction, and a sneak peek at some of the participating authors and the content that fans can expect to encounter!

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Defending Democracy Via Urban Planning, With Dr Jayde Lin Roberts

Mon, 24 Oct 2022 01:50:37 GMT

Solarpunk is all about vibrant, beautiful, livable cities filled with plants, public transportation, and solar panels—in other words, nothing like the congested, polluted, inhospitable messes we live in today. How do we start making the great transformation? Simply by starting. Join us for a conversation with Dr Jayde Lin Roberts about having a voice in the development (or redevelopment) of your neighborhood or city.

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Coping With Climate Grief, With Chaplain Gabrielle Gelderman

Mon, 10 Oct 2022 07:05:44 GMT

In this episode of Solarpunk Presents, nonfiction co-editor Ariel Kroon sits down for a virtual chat with Gabrielle Gelderman, an Edmonton, Alberta-based climate grief chaplain and climate justice organizer. They talk about what climate grief chaplaincy even is, the necessity of holding communal safe spaces for grieving especially for organizers, the necessity of feeling grief in order to feel more positive emotions, and climate despair as a corollary of solarpunk hope.

Links:

Gabrielle's Instagram: @theclimatechaplain

Gabrielle’s LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/gabthechaplain

Climate Justice Edmonton (CA)

Faith Matters Network (US)

Sunrise Youth Organization (US)

*Note: During the interview, Ariel mentions episode 4.30 of Secret Feminist Agenda; the name of the theorist she cites is Eugenia Zuroski.

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Climate Change and the Marshall Islands, With Dr Helene Jacot Des Combes

Mon, 19 Sep 2022 15:00:38 GMT

In this episode, Christina talks to Dr Hélène Jacot Des Combes, Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation Advisor to the National Disaster Management Office of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. They discuss sea level rise, infrastructure that can adapt to climate change, and land reclamation and protection. Dr Des Combes speaks passionately about reparations (for decades of colonialism, the US’s testing of atomic weapons on the atolls of the Marshall Islands, forced relocation of the Marshallese people, climate injustice, and much more) and advocates for the Marshallese peoples’ right to their own lands.

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1.2: Interview With John Okhiulu From the Decolonizing Wealth Project

Mon, 05 Sep 2022 12:00:24 GMT

In this episode of Solarpunk Presents, Ariel sits down with John Okhiulu from the Decolonizing Wealth Project to talk about the role of philanthropy in addressing racial capitalism and reparations, and how the DWP is working to change the narrative around charitable giving and wealth-transfer. Also, John tells us about how he personally found himself in the world of philanthropy, as well as his vision of a solarpunk future.

To learn more, visit decolonizingwealth.com, read about its founder Edgar Villanueva on his site, or follow the organization for updates on their Twitter @decolonizwealth.

Download the full transcript here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/124123344

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Must Solarpunk Should?

Mon, 29 Aug 2022 07:57:05 GMT

In this soft-launch of Solarpunk Presents, the companion podcast to Solarpunk Futures, hosts and Solarpunk Magazine nonfiction editors Ariel Kroon and Christina De La Rocha tackle the question of “Must Solarpunk Should”? This is a dilemma that unconsciously or consciously comes through in a lot of the nonfiction submissions that we receive in our slush pile, and we have Thoughts about it. So many thoughts! Possibly controversial one! But one of the best things about solarpunk is the space that it gives us to explore and think through new paradigms, new systems thinking, new ideas – some of which maybe we don’t necessarily love, but that are part of our world regardless of whether we like it or not. We’re learning and growing with every new day as solarpunks - come join us!

PS: The audio is bumpy in parts. Please excuse the technical hiccups. At the time, Christina had the world's worst internet connection, which made recording bi-continental discussions prone to glitches.

Connect with Solarpunk Presents Podcast on Twitter, Mastodon, or at solarpunkpresents.com.

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