Solarpunk Now!
Luka D.
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The podcast about politics, science/tech, philosophy, and whatever else it'll take to get us out of this mess. Let's demand a brighter future together!
Available episodes
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14 hours ago
Fashioning the Future: Why Accessible Fashion Matters
AJ is a fashion designer who focuses on making accessible fashion: clothing for diverse bodies, abilities, and genders. AJ offers his view of the problems with the fashion world, how he’s navigated fashion as a trans man with disabilities, and how his design processes challenges harmful norms. We’ll also hear some great ideas for making fashion part of a brighter future!
Support Solarpunk Now!: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/solarpunkcast
For show notes and more info about this episode, click here.
Follow me on Twitter: @solarpunkcast
Mastodon: @solarpunkcast@spore.socialSupport the show
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May 6, 2023
More than a Measure: Building Political Consciousness through the Electoral System
In fall 2022, Pasadena’s Measure H established citywide rent control, “just cause” eviction protections, and a rental housing board to implement the law. But the campaign to get there wasn’t easy, and the struggle certainly isn’t over. On the face of it, Measure H might seem like just another electoral campaign. But Aeryn, Ryan, and Bee of the Pasadena Tenants Union saw an awakening of political consciousness, and an expansion of the horizon of possibility for disempowered and disillusioned tenants.
Support Solarpunk Now!: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/solarpunkcast
For show notes and more info about this episode, click here.
Follow me on Twitter: @solarpunkcast
Mastodon: @solarpunkcast@spore.socialSupport the show
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Apr 5, 2023
Scientists for Socialism! Why Activism and Research Go Hand-in-Hand
Bee Rooney is both a scientist and a socialist. She got her PhD in environmental engineering and science at Caltech (Pasadena, CA), and now organizes with the Socialists of Caltech and Pasadena Tenants Union.
Bee shares her insights on balancing the demands of research and activism. We also discuss her work in relation to climate, public health, and building a solarpunk future. Scientists can do a lot when they organize together, and when they bring their skills and knowledge outside of the academy to benefit their community. In this episode we’ll hear what it takes to get together, get involved, and make change happen as a scientist.
Support Solarpunk Now!: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/solarpunkcast
For show notes and more info about this episode, click here.
Follow me on Twitter: @solarpunkcast
Mastodon: @solarpunkcast@spore.socialSupport the show
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Mar 5, 2023
The Union Makes Us Strong! Stories of Tenant Organizing for a World in Crisis
This episode is about tenants unions, fighting for the right to secure housing in an increasingly precarious world.
Tenants are uniquely situated between socioeconomic inequality and climate change, so a tenants union fights against a wide variety of challenges: harassment and illegal evictions, gentrification, natural disasters, displacement, racism, and more. In this episode, we’ll hear from two tenants unions who have faced unique regional challenges. We’ll see where their struggles overlap, as well as unique obstacles they face and strategies they’ve developed as a result.
Support Solarpunk Now!: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/solarpunkcast
For more info about this episode, <click here>.
Follow me on Twitter: @solarpunkcast
Mastodon: @solarpunkcast@spore.socialSupport the show
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Jan 20, 2023
Your Imagination is Haunted: Exorcising Neoliberalism's Ghosts with Joey Ayoub
This is a collab episode with fellow podcaster Joey Ayoub of The Fire These Times. We talk in detail about the research I was doing before I started my show, as well as how it connects to Joey’s current research. We cover neoliberalism, capitalist realism, hauntology and ghosts, and all sorts of issues with temporality and imagining the future.
Support Solarpunk Now!: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/solarpunkcast
The Fire These Times website: https://thefirethesetimes.com/
You can also follow Joey on Twitter and Mastodon, and support his show on Patreon.
For more info about this episode, click here.
Follow me on Twitter: @solarpunkcast
Mastodon: @solarpunkcast@spore.socialSupport the show
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Nov 30, 2022
The Sensual Side of Social Ecology (Chaia Heller Pt. 1)
What if we could meet not just our needs, but also our desires, without harming the environment? What if our society and nature actually worked together to strengthen each other? Chaia Heller, author of The Ecology of Everyday Life, explains social ecology and her work developing a philosophy and politics of social desire. Social ecology, starting with the work of Murray Bookchin, envisions a rational society that values both social justice and the environment. Sounds pretty solarpunk to me!
Check out the Institute for Social Ecology: https://social-ecology.org/wp/
Read Chaia’s book The Ecology of Everyday Life
For more info about this episode, click here.
Support my work: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/solarpunkcast
…and be sure to follow Solarpunk Now on Twitter at @solarpunkcast!Support the show
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Nov 30, 2022
It's Not a Revolution if We Can't Dance! (Chaia Heller Pt. 2)
The theories of social ecology and social desire provide a rational basis for solarpunk projects of all kinds. This is the second part of my conversation with Chaia Heller, author of The Ecology of Everyday Life. In this episode we bring her theory of the five aspects of social desire to life, showing how this theory unfolds into practice: direct actions, illustrative opposition, building alternative political structures, and beyond!
Check out the Institute for Social Ecology: https://social-ecology.org/wp/
Read Chaia’s book The Ecology of Everyday Life
For more info about this episode, click here.
Support my work: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/solarpunkcast
…and be sure to follow Solarpunk Now on Twitter at @solarpunkcast!Support the show
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Jun 20, 2022
The Roleplaying Game Helping Us Build Utopia
Imagining the future isn’t easy, but artist collective Solarpunk Surf Club is here to help. Nick and Max, two members of the group, designed Solarpunk Futures, a card-based tabletop RPG, to break down barriers to radical imagination and strengthen our imaginative capabilities. It’s well-researched, beautifully executed, and ultimately a powerful and versatile tool for imagining a better future. In this episode, we dig into the design process, artistic philosophy, and utopian vision behind Solarpunk Futures.
Get Your Copy of Solarpunk Futures: https://thefuture.wtf/
More from the Solarpunk Surf Club: https://solarpunksurf.club/
Follow @solarpunkclub on Twitter
For more info about this episode, click here.
Support my work: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/solarpunkcast
…and be sure to follow Solarpunk Now on Twitter at @solarpunkcast!Support the show
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May 21, 2022
Log On, Clock In, Drop Out: Tech and Liberation (HydroponicTrash Pt. 1)
Andre–aka HydroponicTrash–is a hacker, gardener, organizer, and all-around solarpunk. In this episode we discuss technology: as an industry, as a cultural phenomenon, and as a potential method of liberation. We also cover the history of the 60s counterculture, which is surprisingly relevant to technology and utopianism today.
Follow Andre on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HydroponicTrash
On TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hydroponictrash
On Substack: https://anarchosolarpunk.substack.com/
For more info about this episode, click here.
Support my work: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/solarpunkcast
…and be sure to follow Solarpunk Now on Twitter at @solarpunkcast!Support the show
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May 21, 2022
Let's All Do Acid Communism! (HydroponicTrash Pt. 2)
This is Part 2 of my conversation with Andre–hacker, gardener, organizer, and all-around solarpunk. In this episode we continue our discussion of historical social movements, then talk about how to build power and organize your community in the 21st century. The secret? A little something called Acid Communism.
Follow Andre on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HydroponicTrash
On TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hydroponictrash
On Substack: https://anarchosolarpunk.substack.com/
For more info about this episode, click here.
Support my work: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/solarpunkcast
…and be sure to follow Solarpunk Now on Twitter at @solarpunkcast!Support the show
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Apr 12, 2022
Compassion Is Radical: Care Work Within a Punitive System
Sarah is an addiction counselor at a nonprofit agency in California. Her agency offers a wide range of services, both inpatient and outpatient, and they primarily serve low-income clients with publicly funded health insurance. In this episode we discuss: the structural barriers her clients face, encouraging developments in addiction treatment, and a vision for a future where everyone gets the care they deserve.
For more info about this episode, click here.
Support my work: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/solarpunkcast
…and be sure to follow Solarpunk Now on Twitter at @solarpunkcast!Support the show
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Jan 17, 2022
Building a Better Democracy... with Computer Science!
Matthew Gray is a computer science researcher and history buff passionate about sortition, a method of allocating public offices by lot rather than by election. In this episode we explore the potential benefits of sortition, and Matthew explains the computer science that could make it work securely and efficiently at the national level.
For more info about this episode, click here.
Support my work: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/solarpunkcast
…and be sure to follow Solarpunk Now on Twitter at @solarpunkcast!Support the show
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Jan 17, 2022
Why Solarpunk?
Why do certain futurist aesthetics appeal over others? What does art have to say about our political goals, or about the psychological landscape of our world today? Art can be speculative: posing questions and potential answers about how things could be, or should be, in the future. In this inaugural episode of Solarpunk Now, I show how art and politics intertwine, and make the case for solarpunk as a speculative political project.
For more info about this episode, click here.
Support my work: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/solarpunkcast
…and be sure to follow Solarpunk Now on Twitter at @solarpunkcast!Support the show
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